him, at the same
time springing on one side to avoid the shock. After a long fight and at
a grand flourish of trumpets, the most skilful of the swordsmen stood
firm and received the infuriated beast on the point of his weapon, which
was aimed at a fatal spot above the frontlet, leading direct to the
brain. The effect was electrical, and like dropping the curtain upon a
play: the animal staggered, reeled a moment, and fell dead! Three bulls
were thus destroyed, the last one in his frenzy goring a fine spirited
horse, on which one of the gladiators was mounted, to death, and
trampling his rider fearfully. During the exhibition, the parties in the
arena were encouraged to feats of daring by the waving of handkerchiefs
and scarfs in the hands of the fair senoras and senoritas. Indeed there
is generally a young girl trained to the business, who takes a part in
the arena with the matadors against the bull. The one thus engaged, on
the occasion here referred to, could not have exceeded seventeen years
in age.[38]

Whatever colonial modifications the Spanish character may have undergone
in Cuba, the Creole is Castilian still in his love for the cruel sports
of the arena, and there is a great similarity between the modern
Spaniards and the ancient Romans in this respect. As the Spanish
language more closely resembles Latin than Italian, so do the Spanish
people show more of Roman blood than the natives of Italy themselves.
_Panem et circenses_ (bread and circuses!) was the cry of the old Roman
populace, and to gratify their wishes millions of sesterces were
lavished, and, hecatombs of human victims slain, in the splendid
amphitheatres erected by the masters of the world in all the cities
subjected to their sway. And so _pan y toros_ (bread and bulls!) is the
imperious demand of the Spaniards, to which the government always
promptly responds.

The parallel may be pursued still further: the loveliest ladies of Rome
gazed with rapture upon the dying agonies of the gladiators who hewed
each other in pieces, or the Christian's who perished in conflict with
the wild beasts half starved to give them battle! The beauteous senoras
and senoritas of Madrid and Havana enjoy with a keen delight the
terrible spectacle of bulls speared by the _picador_, or gallant horses
ripped up and disembowelled by the horns of their brute adversaries. It
is true that the ameliorating spirit of Christianity is evident in the
changes which the arena has un