The Pyrenees

by Hilaire Belloc

For Talleyrand well said to the Maker of Religions, after having described to him how, to found a religion, he should first suffer obloquy: how he should be ready to stand alone and the rest of it, then added, “If you can possibly manage it,” work a few miracles: and this kind of drinking also seems at first miraculous. But it can be accomplished; all it needs is faith, and that strength of will which overcomes the subconscious reactions of the body.

Do not swallow. When you think enough has poured down your throat, do three things all at the same time: relax the pressure of your right hand, tilt the gourd that you are holding upright, and put the forefinger of your left hand smartly down upon the hole in the nozzle. For the first few hundred times you will spill upon yourself a little wine, but in the long run you will learn, and you will drink as neatly and as cleanly as any Basque or Catalan.

If you do not learn to use this instrument thus, you will be compelled to carry a glass, which is not only difficult but dangerous; and if you compromise by using the gourd, but pouring the wine into a cup, it would either take you infinite time through the nozzle, or else you will have to unscrew the main top piece (e) of the gourd, and if you do that too often it will certainly leak.

These are the elements of the use of the gourd, but, like all things noble, the gourd has many subtleties besides. For instance, it is designed by Heaven to prevent any man abusing God’s great gift of wine; for the goat’s hair inside gives to wine so appalling a taste that a man will only take of it exactly what is necessary for his needs. This defect or virtue cannot be wholly avoided, but there is a trick for making it less violent, a trick advisable with an old gourd, when one is starting out on one’s journey, and absolutely essential with a new one. This trick consists of pouring into the gourd somewhat over half a pint of brandy and shaking it well up and down, and after that carrying it for a few hours, jolting about and irrigating all the hairy inwards of the bottle as one goes. But do not imagine that the brandy so used can be drunk; when you have thus used it for a few hours it must all be poured away, for it is wholly spoilt. By the way, if you can get an old gourd second-hand that does not leak, it is far preferable to a new one; all things really worth having are better old than new. As to the price of a gourd, you will not get a small one of a quart or two for less than 8 to 10 francs, nor a large one from a quarter to a half gallon or upwards at less than an extra 3 or 4 francs for every quart. Gourds are not things to haggle about. Satisfy yourself that it does not leak and be grateful to get a sound one. It will last you all your life. As to weight, a gallon is ten pounds: a quart is two pounds and a half.

Further, you will find very often that when your gourd is empty, especially if you have carried it empty upon a cold and misty morning, the inside sticks together, and when you try to blow it out through the mouth (as is advisable, before pouring in the wine), no effort of yours can swell it; the trick is to put it before a fire and warm it gently; after it has warmed about ten minutes, it will swell easily.

As to the sack, nothing is more difficult than to advise upon this matter. Some men to be happy must carry a block, and pencils, and colours, and brushes. Others cannot live without combs. Nothing is really necessary besides bread and meat. Each traveller must decide his own minimum, but I can give advice both as to the shape and the weight of the sack. The people of the hills, when they carry a sack, carry a light bag slung by a strap over the shoulder, and for a light weight, up, say, to seven or eight pounds, that is the most practical equipment: thus what we call in England a satchel, and what the French call a Havresac does very well. For anything heavier a knapsack is often advised; but there are disadvantages in the knapsack: it is complicated, one cannot get at it without taking it off, and it is hot to the back. If you will be at the pains of a knapsack, always have one that is watertight in material, with a large overhanging flap, and never burden yourself with a knapsack which has outside pockets. The value of a knapsack for heavy carriage is that the weight of it comes right down on to the build of the body. Weight is quite a different thing, when it sags, backward or sideways, from what it is when it presses right down upon the framework of a man’s bones. That is why all those used to carrying very heavy weights habitually carry them upon the head or the shoulders, the human body is built for taking a strain in this way down the length of the bones. Now if you carry the haversack by a strap over the shoulder, any appreciable weight, even one so small as ten kilos, becomes a grievous burden after a short distance. Light weights, under that amount, can be so borne, but directly upon the shoulders weights up to forty pounds can be carried without destroying a man’s marching power, and indeed both French and English armies have often repeatedly climbed the mule tracks of these very hills carrying such weights in this fashion.

It must, however, be remarked in connexion with the knapsack that it will not save you fatigue unless the weight bears right down upon the crest of the shoulder blades, and in order to ensure this, make certain of three things. First, that the shoulder straps come well down the knapsack, so that a good part of the weight is above the point where they are sewn on; secondly, that your knapsack is so packed that the weight is at the top, that no heavy things sag towards the bottom; and thirdly, that you have strings or straps going from the shoulder straps in front to a belt round your middle, whereby you can brace up the knapsack whenever it begins to lean away backwards. Every soldier knows the difference between a knapsack fitting close to the back and coming well above the shoulder, and one that drags away backwards.

To have said so much about the knapsack may mislead some of my readers. I would not advise it; it is only necessary if for some reason or other you want to carry weight. If you are wise, and content to take only the necessary, a haversack slung at the side from the shoulder will do perfectly well, and it has the advantage of being get-at-able at any moment. You may balance the weight of it by carrying the gourd slung over the other shoulder.

As to sandals—Many an Englishman will understand the need of the gourd and the sack who will not understand the advantage of sandals. All the Pyrenean people, for the matter of that, most Spaniards, travel not in leather boots but in cloth slippers with a sole made of twisted cord, and to these the French give the name of sandals. But, as in the case of the gourd, the name suddenly changes on the Spanish side. In France you must ask for Sandales, in Spain for a pair of Alpargatas. The advantage of these is a thing of which you can never convince a man the first time he attempts these mountains, but he is sure enough of it at the end of his first day. For some reason or other, the loose stones and the pointed rocks of a mule path make travel upon foot intolerably painful and difficult if it is too long pursued in ordinary boots. With Alpargatas on, you do not feel the fatigue of a track that would finish you in 5 miles if you tried to do it in leather. And conversely, oddly enough, a high road with a good surface soon becomes as intolerable in Alpargatas as is a mule track in boots. There is nothing for it but to leave your boots at the nearest town, if you propose to return to it, or if you do not, to carry them with you and change from one footgear to the other as you pass from the mountain to the road, and from the road to the mountains.

Remember that, in Alpargatas, you will always end the day with wet feet. Let not that trouble you. They dry at once before the camp fire and they do not shrink. The reason you will always have wet feet is that in every few miles of hills you have to cross a marshy place or a stream. But though it is easy to dry Alpargatas in a few minutes, it is advisable to change socks at night, while those you have worn during the day dry before the fire.