Valencia and Murcia found far more favour in their eyes; a far more
fertile soil, and wealthier inhabitants, were better calculated to
entice them; there was a prospect of plunder, and likewise a
prospect of safety and refuge, should the dogs of justice be roused
against them. If there were the populous town and village in those
lands, there was likewise the lone waste, and uncultivated spot, to
which they could retire when danger threatened them. Still more
suitable to them must have been La Mancha, a land of tillage, of
horses, and of mules, skirted by its brown sierra, ever eager to
afford its shelter to their dusky race. Equally suitable,
Estremadura and New Castile; but far, far more, Andalusia, with its
three kingdoms, Jaen, Granada, and Seville, one of which was still
possessed by the swarthy Moor, - Andalusia, the land of the proud
steed and the stubborn mule, the land of the savage sierra and the
fruitful and cultivated plain: to Andalusia they hied, in bands of
thirties and sixties; the hoofs of their asses might be heard
clattering in the passes of the stony hills; the girls might be
seen bounding in lascivious dance in the streets of many a town,
and the beldames standing beneath the eaves telling the 'buena
ventura' to many a credulous female dupe; the men the while
chaffered in the fair and market-place with the labourers and
chalanes, casting significant glances on each other, or exchanging
a word or two in Rommany, whilst they placed some uncouth animal in
a particular posture which served to conceal its ugliness from the
eyes of the chapman.
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