inally, with the purpose of wiping out all
distinctions of any kind which might lead to a retention of national
characteristics, it was decreed in 1567 that no woman should walk abroad
with a covered face. Such a measure was certainly short-sighted. For
hundreds of years this Oriental custom had been common in southern
Spain; it was significant of much of their idea of social order and
decency, and any attempt to abolish it with a single stroke of a
Catholic pen was both unwise and imprudent. According to Hume, "this
practice had taken such a firm hold of the people of the south of Spain
that traces of it remain to the present day in Andalusia, where the
women of the poorer classes constantly cover the lower part of the face
with the corner of a shawl. In Peru and Chili (originally colonized by
the Spanish) the custom is even more universal." Yet it was this firmly
rooted habit that the Christians tried to destroy! As the result of this
order, the majority of the Spanish women showed themselves in public as
rarely as possible, and then they tried to evade the law whenever they
could. Other measures, equally severe and equally impossible, which were
enacted at the same time, ended finally, as might have been expected, in
a desperate revolt. A horde of Moslem fanatics, goaded to desperation,
swept down upon the Christians of Granada, and there was a terrible
massacre. This was all that was necessary to start the Spaniards upon a
campaign which was still more cruel than any which had preceded it, for
now the avowed object was revenge and not war. Six thousand helpless
women and children were slaughtered in a single day by the Marquis de
los Velez, and this is but a single instance of the bloodthirsty spirit
which was rampant at the time.

Even among the Spanish people, the officers of the Inquisition found
many victims, and women quite as often as men had to endure its rigors.
In spite of the many centuries of Christian influence, there were still
to be found in various parts of the country remnants of the old pagan
worship which were difficult to eradicate. It was claimed that sects
were in existence which not only denied the Christian faith, but openly
acknowledged the Devil as their patron and promised obedience to him! In
the ceremonies attendant upon this worship of the powers of darkness,
women played no unimportant part, and many were the reputed witches who
were supposed to be on terms of intimate acquaintance with