PEASANTS OF LA HUERTA, AND CIGARRERA OF VALENCIA.

The people of Murcia cannot be said to have issued victoriously from the struggle against barren rocks, desiccating winds, and a dry atmosphere. They abandon themselves to a fatalism quite oriental, and make hardly any effort at improvement. Lazily inclined, they take their siesta in and out of time, and even when awake preserve an aspect of impassiveness as if they pursued a reverie. They are not much given to gaiety, and, though neighbours of Andalusia and La Mancha, do not dance. They are full of rancour and savage hatred when offended, and have exercised but small influence upon the destinies of Spain. They cannot compare in industry with Catalans, Navarrese, and Galicians, nor in intelligence with natives of any other part of Spain. The Valencians, on the other hand, are an industrious race. They not only cultivate their plains, but scale the barren slopes of the rocks with their terraced gardens. They are a gay people, famous for their dances. Ferocious instincts are asserted to underlie this outward gaiety, and a proverb says that “the paradise of La Huerta is inhabited by demons.” Human life is held very {419} cheaply in Valencia. Formerly that town supplied the courtiers of Madrid with hired assassins, and the numerous crosses in and around it are evidence of so many murders committed in the heat of passion. In Valencia, however, the use of the knife is a tradition of chivalry, as are duels in some other parts of Europe. The conscience of the murderer is perfectly at ease; he wipes the blood-stained knife upon his girdle, and immediately afterwards cuts his bread with it. The dress of the Valencians consists of loose drawers confined round the waist by a red or violet scarf, velvet waistcoats with pieces of silver, white linen gaiters leaving the knees and ankles bare, a bright kerchief wrapped round the shaved head, and a low hat with brim turned up and ornamented with ribbons. A many-coloured cloak with a broad fringe completes this costume, and, draped in it, even the meanest beggar possesses an air of distinction. In their customs and modes of thought the Valencians differ equally from their neighbours. They speak a Provençal dialect, mixed with many Arabic words, but more closely related to the language of the troubadours than the dialect of the Catalans.

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Fig. 160.—THE PALM GROVE OF ELCHE AND THE HUERTAS OF ORIHUELA.

Scale 1 : 400,000.

Agriculture is the leading pursuit of Valencia and Murcia, and a few branches of industry are carried on. Many hands are occupied in making the white wines of Alicante and the red ones of Vinaroz and Benicarló; the grapes of the vineyards of Denia, Javea, and Gandia, to the north of Cabo de la Nao, are converted {420} by a complicated process into raisins; and the esparto grass growing abundantly on the sunny slopes of Albacete and Murcia is employed in the manufacture of mats, baskets, sandals, and a variety of other objects.[149] There are hundreds of metalliferous lodes, but only the lead mines in the hills of Herrerías, to the east of Cartagena, are being worked on a large scale, and that by foreigners. Zinc has been worked since 1861, and mines of copper, lead, silver, mercury, and rock-salt abound at some distance from the coast; but, from want of means of communication, their exploitation would not pay.

Fig. 161.—RUINS OF THE DYKE OF THE RESERVOIR ABOVE LORCA.