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The Pocket George Borrow by George Henry Borrow
page 19 of 145 (13%)
Many of them reside in caves scooped in the sides of the ravines which
lead to the higher regions of the Alpujarras, on a skirt of which stands
Granada. A common occupation of the Gitanos of Granada is working in
iron, and it is not unfrequent to find these caves tenanted by Gypsy
smiths and their families, who ply the hammer and forge in the bowels of
the earth. To one standing at the mouth of the cave, especially at
night, they afford a picturesque spectacle. Gathered round the forge,
their bronzed and naked bodies, illuminated by the flame, appear like
figures of demons, while the cave, with its flinty sides and uneven roof,
blackened by the charcoal vapours which hover about it in festoons, seems
to offer no inadequate representation of fabled purgatory.

* * * * *

It has always struck me that there is something highly poetical about a
forge I am not singular in this opinion: various individuals have assured
me that they can never pass by one, even in the midst of a crowded town,
without experiencing sensations which they can scarcely define, but which
are highly pleasurable. I have a decided penchant for forges, especially
rural ones, placed in some quaint, quiet spot--a dingle for example,
which is a poetical place, or at a meeting of four roads, which is still
more so, for how many a superstition--and superstition is the soul of
poetry--is connected with these cross roads! I love to light upon such a
one, especially after nightfall, as everything about a forge tells to
most advantage at night, the hammer sounds more solemnly in the
stillness, the glowing particles scattered by the strokes sparkle with
more effect in the darkness, whilst the sooty visage of the sastramescro,
half in shadow, and half illumined by the red and partial blaze of the
forge, looks more mysterious and strange. On such occasions I draw in my
horse's rein, and seated in the saddle endeavour to associate with the
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