e heart and lips of the people. Children are
constantly heard singing _coplas_ which are evidently of recent
production, since they speak of recent events, and yet which have the
air of old folklore ballads, of concentrated bits of history.

Rey inocente--a weak king,
Reina traidora--treacherous queen,
Pueblo cobarde--a coward people,
Grandes sin honra--nobles without honour,

sums up and expresses in nine words the history of Goday's shameful
bargain with Napoleon.

En el Puente de Alcolea
La batalla gano Prim,
Y por eso la cantamos
En las calles de Madrid.

At the bridge of Alcolea
A great battle gained Prim,
And for this we go a-singing
In the streets of Madrid.

Senor Don Eugenio de Olavarria-y Huarte, in citing this _copla_ (_Folklore
de Madrid_), points out that it contains the very essence of folklore,
since it gives a perfectly true account of the battle of Alcolea.
Although Prim was not present, he was the liberator, and without him the
battle would never have been fought, nor the joy of liberty have been
sung in the streets of the capital. There is seldom, if ever, any
grossness in these spontaneous songs of the people--never indecency or
double meaning. No sooner has an event happened than it finds its
history recorded in some of these popular _coplas_, and sung by the
children at their play.

The Folklore Society has some interesting information to give about the
innumerable rhymed games which Spanish children, like our own, are so
fond of playing, many of them having an origin lost in prehistoric
times. One finds, also, from some of the old stories, that the devils
are much hurt in their feelings by having tails and horns ascribed to
them. As a matter of fact, they have neither, and cannot understand
where mortals picked up the idea! The question is an interesting one.
Where did we obtain this notion?

CHAPTER XVII

THE FUTURE OF SPAIN

An Englishman who, from over thirty years' residence in Spain and close
connection with the country, numbered among her people some of his most
valued friends, thus speaks of the national characteristics:

"The Spanish and English characters are, indeed, in many points
strangely alike. Spain ranks as one of the Latin nations, and the
Republican orators of Spain are content to look to France for light and
leading in all their political combinations; but a large mass of the
nation, the bone and s