[25] The elements which go to the making of a great _corrida_ in Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, Zaragoza, San Sebastián, are intricate and varied. If any of them fails, the consummation fails. The rearing of perfect bulls is a science in Spain. Only a few preëminent ranches--_ganaderías de toros bravos_--are equipped to supply them. They are either in the province of Salamanca or in Andalusia. The _toreros_ study the bulls in the field, coöperating in their upbring. Experts breed and train them, and prepare them for their supreme moment in the sun of the arena. And before the conflict, they are examined by veterinary surgeons. If they are one jot less than perfect, they may not enter the ring of a true _corrida_. They are then consigned to the _corridas de novilleros_: the innumerable encounters of the apprentice fighters--who must go through several seasons and win the applause of the most exacting critics ere they are admitted to the rank of _espada_. Yet despite this care, imperfect bulls (bulls who refuse to fight, who fight erratically, who flinch at crucial moments) do enter the best _corrida_ and blot out the artistry of the most expert _matador_. Indeed, the skill of the _torero_ lies in great measure in his ability to control the bull. The genuine artist must possess hypnotic power. He must compel him in the instant of confrontation to forget the multitude, the flashing _capas_, the _banderillas_ that bite his flesh: to concentrate upon his own frail grace all the bull’s hate and all the bull’s vigor. He must compel a brute to be the partner of an exquisite dancer. He must control his own body as perfectly as any artist on a stage. Utter purity of form, of pace, of measure must be preserved within this threat of death. There is no virtuosity like this in all the world. Beyond is the crowd, not at all loth to seeing him undone: before him, _his colleague_, is a maddened bull whose horns are more terrible than swords. He must control the crowd; he must model the lunges of the brute into the design of an essential dance. And all this he must do in coolness. The _torero_ who can achieve this, not one time in a career but with reasonable frequency, and before the most savagely critical--and the most savage--audience in the world, comes not often in a decade’s passing. Most _toreros_ are at the mercy of the bull. If he behaves they acquit themselves with credit. If he baulks, they must trust to luck--to the saving _capas_ of the _banderilleros_--even to their heels. Hisses are more frequent in the _plaza_ than cheers.