Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/274

 life, it seems to our disturbed imaginations as if in every face we read a love of lawlessness. Each donkey driver becomes a bandolero; we seem to recognize in this maid or yonder matron a descendant of that notorious Margarita of Ronda who, forty years ago, while yet in the bloom of youth, was executed after confessing to no less than fourteen murders. Or possibly we think of those seven bandit brothers whose record has, I think, not yet been broken, for to them were justly attributed one hundred and two murders and unnumbered robberies. We shudder at the practice in Morocco of hanging gory heads of criminals and rebels above the city-gates. Not more than fifty years ago the heads of bandits were exposed to public gaze in iron cages on the Spanish highways. Customs have changed, however, and Ronda's present life is quietude and peace to all outward seeming. Let us, then, cross the bridge and enter the market-place, where the fruits and vegetables of the surrounding valleys are exposed for sale.

BULL RING OF RONDA

In Ronda the Andalusian costume still prevails. True, it is subject to a gradual modification which haplessly will