[143] On foot.
[146] Estremadura was for long years a vast winter pasturage whither the flocks from the Castiles were driven each successive autumn, to return to their own cooler mountains on the return of summer. The flocks were divided into cabañas of about 10,000 sheep, in charge of fifty shepherds and fifty of their immense dogs.
[150a] “All are taken.”
[150b] No doubt Oropesa, where the Duke of Frias has an ancient and somewhat dilapidated palace.
[152] Las Batuecas is a valley in the south-west corner of the modern province of Salamanca, four leagues from the city of that name, eight leagues from Ciudad Rodrigo, and about six leagues from Bejar. The principal town or village in the remote valley itself was Alberca. The strange inhabitants of the valley of Batuecas are entirely legendary, as is the story of their discovery by a page of the Duke of Alva in the reign of Philip II. See Verdadera relacion de las Batuecas, by Manuel de Gonzalez (Madrid, 1693), Ponz, Viaje vii. 201; Feijoo, Teatro Critico, iv. 241, where the valley is compared with the equally mythical island of Atlantis.
[153] More commonly spelt ticking.
[154] See Lavengro, chap. 1.
[156a] The conventional diminutive of Pepa, which is itself the diminutive of Josefa, as is Pepe of Josefe.
[156b] This is, of course, a fancy name. Borrow has chosen that of a Spanish Jew, one of the great Rabbinical commentators. See The Zincali, part i. chap. ii.
[157a] This concession to local prejudice is delightful. But it must be remembered that barraganeria or recognized concubinage was approved by Church and State in Spain for many hundred years. See Burke’s History of Spain, vol. i., Appendix ii.