Letters from Spain

by Joseph Blanco White

This is literally done by every peasant when passing one of those rude and melancholy monuments. A heap of stones is always observed at the foot of the cross; not, however, instead of prayers, as the passage would seem to imply, but as a tale by which the number of Paternosters said by the compassionate passengers, might be reckoned. The antiquity of this Christianized custom appears, from a passage in the Book of Proverbs, to be very great. The proverb or sentence, translated as it is in the margin of the English Bible, runs thus: “As he that putteth a precious stone in a heap, so is he that giveth honour to a fool.”[48]

The Latin version which, you must know, is of great antiquity, and was made the basis of Jerom’s, about the middle of the fourth century, renders this proverb in a remarkable manner. Sicut qui mittit lapidem in acervum Mercurii; ita qui tribuit insipienti honorem. As he that casts a stone on the heap of Mercury, &c. &c. Now, bearing in mind that stones are at this day thrown upon certain graves in Spain; that, according to the passage in Shakspeare, a similar custom seems to have prevailed in other parts of Europe; and that Jerom believed he rendered the spirit of the Hebrew proverb by translating the word which the English Divines doubted, whether to construe a sling, or a heap of stones, by the phrase, acervus Mercurii; a deity, whose statues were frequently placed over sepulchres among the Romans—bearing all this in mind, I say, it appears to me that the custom of covering some graves with stones thrown at random, must have existed in the time of the writer of the Proverbs. Perhaps I may be allowed to conjecture that it originated in the punishment of stoning, so common among the Jews; that passengers flung stones, as a mark of abhorrence, on the heap which hid the body of the criminal; that the primitive Christians, many of whom were Jews, followed the same method of shewing their horror of heathen tombs, till those places came to be known, in Jerom’s time, by the appellation of heaps of Mercury; that modern Christians applied the same custom to the graves of such as had been deemed unworthy of consecrated ground; and, finally, that the frequency of highway robberies and murders in Spain detached the custom from the idea of crime, and softened a mark of detestation into one of prayer and intercession for the unfortunate victim.

SPANISH CHRISTIAN NAMES.

The extraordinary devotion of the Catholics, especially in this country, to the Virgin Mary, and the notion, supported by the clergy, that as many Saints as have their names given to a child at baptism, are, in some degree, engaged to take it under their protection, occasion a national peculiarity not unworthy of remark. In the first place few have less than half a dozen names entered in the parish register, a list of which is given to the priest that he may read them out in the act of christening the child. It would be difficult indeed, under these circumstances, for most people to know exactly their own names, especially if, like myself, they have been favoured with eleven. The custom of the country, however, allows every individual to forget all but the first in the list. In our devotion to the Virgin, we have hitherto avoided the strange solecism of the French Monsieur Marie, though almost every Spaniard has Maria for a second name.

The titles given to the innumerable images of the Virgin Mary, which supply the usual names of our females, might occasion the most ludicrous puns or misnomers, if habit had not diverted the mind from their real meaning. No names are more common than Encarnacion, Incarnation—Concepcion, Conception—Visitacion, Visitation—Maravillas, Marvels—Regla, Rule—Dolores, Pains—Agustias, Anguishes—Soledad, Solitude—Natividad, Nativity, &c. Other titles of the Virgin afford, however, more agreeable associations. Such are Estrella, Star—Aurora—Amparo, Protection—Esperanza, Hope—Salud, Health—Pastora, Shepherdess—Rocio, Dew, &c. But words, as it is said of the chameleon, take the colour of the objects to which they are attached; and I have known Pains and Solitudes among our Andalusians, who, had they been more numerous, might have produced a revolution in the significations of the language.

CHRISTMAS.

Since no festival of any interest takes place between summer and this season, it is already time to conclude these notes with the expiring year.

It was the custom, thirty or forty years since, among families of fortune, to prepare, for an almost public exhibition, one or two rooms of the house, where, upon a clumsy imitation of rocks and mountains, a great number of baby-houses and clay figures, representing the commonest actions of life, were placed amidst a multitude of lamps and tapers. A half ruined stable, surrounded by sheep and cattle, was seen in the front of the room, with the figures of Joseph, Mary, and some shepherds, kneeling in adoration of the child in the manger—an act which an ass and an ox imitated with the greatest composure. This collection of puppets, called Nacimiento, is still, though seldom intended for show, set up in many houses, both for the amusement and the religious gratification of the family and their more intimate friends.

At the period which I have just mentioned, the Nacimientos were made a pretext for collecting a large party, and passing several nights in dancing, and some of the national amusements described in the article of Carnival. The rooms being illuminated after sunset, not only the friends of the family were entitled to enjoy the festivities of the evening, but any gentleman giving his name at the door, might introduce one or more ladies, who, if but known by sight to the master of the house, would be requested to join in the amusements which followed. These were singing, dancing, and not unfrequently, speeches, taken from the old Spanish plays, and known by the name of Relaciones. Recitation was considered till lately as an accomplishment both in males and females; and persons who were known to be skilled in that art, stood up at the request of the company to deliver a speech with all the gesticulation of our old school of acting, just as others gratified their friends by performing upon an instrument. A slight refreshment of the Christmas cakes, called Oxaldres, and sweet wines or home-made liqueurs, was enough to free the house from the imputation of meanness: thus mirth and society were obtained at a moderate expense. But the present Nacimientos seldom afford amusement to strangers; and with the exception of singing carols to the sound of the zambomba, little remains of the old festivities.