breeches, open at the knees and slashed at the sides, adorned with rows
of buttons, and showing white drawers underneath; _alpargatas_, or the
plaited hempen sandals, which, with the stockings, are black; a black
velvet jacket, with slashed and button-trimmed sleeves, and the
gaily-coloured _faja_, or silk sash, worn over an elaborate shirt.

In the old days, when one entered Spain by diligence from Bayonne to
Pampeluna over the Pyrenees, one learned something of the beauty of the
scenery and the healthy, hardy characteristics of the people, as one
whirled along through the chestnut groves, over the leaping streams,
always at full gallop, up hill and down dale, with a precipice on one
side of the road and the overhanging mountains on the other. Below lay a
fertile country with comfortable little homesteads and villages
clustering round their church, and the like dotted the hillsides and the
valleys wherever there seemed a foothold. As the diligence, with its
team of ten or twelve mules, dashed through these villages or past the
isolated farms, the people stood at their doors and shouted; it was
evidently the event of the day. The mules were changed every hour, or
rather more, according to the road, and as the ascent became steeper
more were added to their number; sometimes six or eight starting from
Bayonne where twelve or fourteen were needed for the top of the Pass. At
least half the journey was always made at night, and if there were a
moon the scenery became magically beautiful; but, in any case, the
stars, in that clear atmosphere, made it almost as bright as day, while
a ruddy light streamed from the lamp over the driver's seat, far above
the coupé, along the string of hurrying mules, as they dashed round
precipitous corners, dangerous enough in broad daylight. If one of the
animals chanced to fall, it was dragged by its companions to the bottom
of the gorge, where it would get up, shake itself, and prepare to tear
up the next ascent as if nothing had happened.