your donkey's back. Along the way, you would see
dozens of other little donkeys and burros. The burro is a donkey-cousin
but even smaller. Donkeys and burros work with the Spanish men and boys
in the fields or carry stones to help build new roads, or carry jars of
water from a well to someone's house. These gentle little animals work
to earn their keep in Spain.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Suppose you start your trip in the north. At the very most northwestern
tip of Spain is the region of Galicia, which everybody thought was the
end of the world before Columbus showed them it wasn't. People in
Galicia call themselves "Gallegos," and they live in a country of rocky
seacoasts, where the ocean pokes long fingers called "rias" back into
green hills and fog rolls in almost every day. In Galicia and the
neighboring region of Asturias, fathers earn their living by fishing or
by farming, and mothers make all the clothes for their families from
cloth they weave themselves. Families live in houses built from stones
cleared from their own fields. This is where the bagpipes are played
while the young people, gaily dressed in red and green, dance their
lively dances.

This northern region is quite different from the sunny south, where the
climate is very hot in the summer and never really gets cold in the
winter. Here in the south is Andalusia, where mountain ranges may have
snow on their peaks all year round, but down in the valleys and plains
sweet-scented tropical flowers bloom in bright colors every single
month. On the hillsides, grapes are grown to make wine, or silvery-green
olive trees make groves against the red earth. This is a region of
horses and good horsemen. Here big ranches stretch along the river banks
and huge black bulls are raised.

[Illustration]

The people of Andalusia are full of music, dancing and the love of life.
They live in white houses built around courtyards full of flowers, with
windows covered with designs in black wrought iron. Black-haired
Andalusian women wear black lace mantillas draped over their heads, a
kind of veil and shawl. They like to carry lacy fans and wear long
flashing earrings. Lots of gypsies live in Andalusia, many of them in
caves in the chalky-white hillsides. Gypsy girls wear long red or green
or blue dresses dotted with white. They fold bright-colored silk fringed
scarves around their necks, and they love to wear many gold bracelets.
Andalusia is