First and foremost _Andalucia_ presents herself, crowned with a
quadruple, not a triple tiara, for the name _los cuatro reinos_, “the
four kingdoms,” is her synonym. They consist of those of Seville,
Cordova, Jaen, and Granada. There is magic and birdlime in the very
letters. Secondly advances the kingdom of _Murcia_, with its
silver-mines, barilla, and palms. Then the gentle kingdom of _Valencia_
appears, all smiles, with fruits and silk. The principality of grim and
truculent _Catalonia_ scowls next on its fair neighbour. Here rises the
smoky factory chimney; here cotton is spun, vice and discontent bred,
and revolutions concocted. The proud and stiff-necked kingdom of
_Arragon_ marches to the west with this Lancashire of Spain, and to the
east with the kingdom of Navarre, which crouches with its green valleys
under the Pyrenees. The three _Basque Provinces_ which abut thereto, are
only called _El Senorio_, “The Lordship,” for the king of all the Spains
is but simple lord of this free highland home of the unconquered
descendants of the aboriginal man of the Peninsula. Here there is much
talk of bullocks and _fueros_, or “privileges;” for when not digging and
delving, these gentlemen by the mere fact of being born here, are
fighting and upholding their good rights by the sword. The empire
province of the _Castiles_ furnishes two coronets to the royal brow; to
wit, that of the older portion, where the young monarchy was nursed, and
that of the newer portion, which was wrested afterwards from the infidel
Moor. The ninth division is desolate _Estremadura_, which has no higher
title than a province, and is peopled by locusts, wandering sheep, pigs,
and here and there by human bipeds. _Leon_, a most time-honoured
kingdom, stretches higher up, with its corn-plains and venerable cities,
now silent as tombs, but in auld lang syne the scenes of mediæval
chivalry and romance. The kingdom of _Gallicia_ and the principality of
the _Asturias_ form the seaboard to the west, and constitute Spain’s
breakwater against the Atlantic.
[Sidenote: POPULATION]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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