Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/318

 horror; and, to his credit be it said, the Spaniard is no coward; he stakes his life against that of a redoubtable antagonist. Many fatalities attest this fact.

THE GIRALDA TOWER IS ALWAYS A SPECTATOR

Let us then enter the vast amphitheater wherein so many tragedies have been enacted; let us suppress the sickening thought of ghastly sights to come; let us prepare to study calmly the Spanish public in its enjoyment of a brilliant national sport; and—I do confess it—a fascinating game of life or death. And it is here in force to-day, that Spanish public; before the opening of the Corrida twelve thousand spectators will be massed in unbroken tiers around the mighty arena, half of them being grilled on the stone seats by the torrid sun. It has been said that "the transit of the sun over the plaza,—the Zodiacal progress into Taurus—is certainly not the worst calculated astronomical observation in Spain; the line of shadow defined on the arena being accurately marked by a gradation of prices." We have wisely taken places on the shady side—de sombra—and from our box we see the graceful tip of the Giralda, delicately outlined against the April sky.