_Origin of the House of Haro._

As Don Diego Lopez, lord of Biscay, was one day lying in wait for the wild boar, he heard the voice of a woman who was singing. On looking around, he beheld on the summit of a rock a damsel, exceedingly beautiful, and richly attired. Smitten with her charms, he proffered her his hand. In reply, she assured him that she was of high descent, but frankly accepted his proffered hand; making, however, one condition--he was never to pronounce a holy name. Tradition says that the fair bride had only one defect, which was, that one of her feet was like that of a goat. Diego Lopez, however, loved her well, and she bore him two children, a daughter, and a son named Iniguez Guerra.

Now it happened one day, as they were sitting at dinner, that the lord of Biscay threw a bone to the dogs, and a mastiff and a spaniel quarrelled about it, and the spaniel griped the mastiff by the throat, and throttled him. "Holy Mary!" exclaimed Don Diego, "who ever saw the like?" Instantly the lady caught hold of the hands of her children; Diego seized and held the boy, but the mother glided through the air with the daughter, and sought again the mountains whence she had come.

Diego remained alone with his son; and some years after, when he invaded the lands of the Moors, he was made captive by them, and led to Toledo. Iniguez Guerra, who was now grown up, was greatly grieved at the captivity of his father, and the men of the land told him that his only hope was to find his mother, and obtain her aid. Iniguez made no delay; he rode alone to the well-known mountains, and when he reached them, behold! his fairy-mother stood there before him on the summit of a rock. "Come unto me," said she, "for well do I know thy errand." And she called to her Pardalo, the horse that ran without a rider in the mountains, and she put a bridle into his mouth, and bade Iniguez mount him, and told him that he must not give him either food or water, or unsaddle or unbridle him, or put shoes upon his feet, and that in one day the demon-steed would carry him to Toledo. And Iniguez obeyed the injunctions of his mother, and succeeded in liberating his father; but his mother never returned.[520]

In the large collection of Spanish ballads named El Romancero Castellano, the only one that treats of fairy-lore is the following, which tells of the enchantment of the King of Castille's daughter by seven fairies,[521] for a period of seven years. It is of the same character as the fairy-tales of France and Italy.

_La Infantine._

a cazar va el caballero, a cazar como solia.-- Los perros lleva cansados, El falcon perdido avia.

Arrimarase a un roble, Alto es a maravilla, En un ramo mas alto Viera estar una Infantina.

Cabellos de su cabeza Todo aquel roble cobrian; "No te espantes, caballero Ni tengas tamana grima.

"Hija soy del buen rey Y de la reina de Castilla; Siete fadas me fadaron,[522]

En brazos de una ama mia,

"Que andase los siete anos Sola en esta montina.[523]

Hoy se cumplan los anos O manana, en aquel dia.

"Por Dios te ruego, caballero Llevesme en tu compania, Si quisieres por muger, Si no sea por amiga."

"Espereis me vos, senora, Esta manana, aquel dia; Ire yo tomar consejo De una madre que tenia."

La nina le respondiera, Y estas palabras, decia: "O mal haya el caballero Que sola deja la nina!"

El se va a tomar consejo, Y ella queda en la montina.

Aconsejole su madre Que la tomase por amiga.

Quando volvio el caballero No la hallara en la montina.

Vio la que la llevaban, Com muy grande caballeria.

El caballero, que lo ha visto, En el suelo se caia.

Desque en si hubo tornado Estas palabras decia:

"Caballero que tal pierde Muy grandes penas merecia.

Yo mismo sere el alcalde, Yo me sere la justicia, Que me cortan pies y manos, Y me arrastran por la villa."[524]

_Pepito el Corcovado._

Pepito el Corcovado,[525] a gay lively little hunchback, used to gain his living by his voice and his guitar; for he was a general favourite, and was in constant request at weddings and other festivities. He was going home one night from one of these festive occasions, being under engagement for another in the morning, and, as it was in the celebrated Sierra Morena, he contrived to lose his way. After trying in vain to find it, he wrapped his cloak about him, and lay down for the night at the foot of a cork-tree. He had hardly, however, gone to sleep, when he was awakened by the sound of a number of little voices singing to an old air with which he was well acquainted,

Lunes y Martes y Miercoles tres

over and over again. Deeming this to be imperfect, he struck in, adding,

Jueves y Viernes y Sabado seis.

The little folk were quite delighted, and for hours the mountain rang with

Lunes y Martes y Miercoles tres, Jueves y Viernes y Sabado seis.

Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday three, Thursday and Friday and Saturday, six.

They finally crowded round Pepito, and bade him ask what he would for having completed their song so beautifully. After a little consideration, he begged to have his hump removed. So said so done, he was in an instant one of the straightest men in all Spain. On his return home, every one was amazed at the transformation. The story soon got wind, and another hunchback, named Cirillo, but unlike Pepito, as crooked in temper as in person, having learned from him where the scene of his adventure lay, resolved to proceed thither and try his luck. He accordingly reached the spot, sat under the cork-tree, and saw and heard all that Pepito had heard and seen. He resolved also to add to the song, and he struck in with "Y Domingo siete" (_and Sunday seven_); but whether it was the breach of rhythm, or the mention of the Lord's Day that gave offence, he was instantly assailed with a shower of blows or pinches, and to make his calamity the greater, Pepito's hump was added to his own.[526]

We thus may see that there are beings in Spain also answering to the various classes of Fairies. But none of these have obtained the same degree of reputation as the House-spirit, whose Spanish name is Duende or Trasgo. In Torquemada's Spanish Mandeville, as the old English version of it is named, there is a section devoted to the Duende, in which some of his feats, such as pelting people with stones, clay, and such like, are noticed, and in the last century the learned Father Feijoo wrote an essay on Duendes,[527] _i.e._ on House-spirits; for he says little of the proper Spanish Duende, and his examples are Hodiken and the Kobolds, of which he had read in Agricola and other writers.

On the whole, perhaps, the best account of the Duende will be found in Calderon's spritely comedy, named La Dama Duende.

In this piece, when Cosme, who pretends that he had seen the Duende when he put out his candle, is asked by his master what he was like, he replies:

Era un fraile Tamanito, y tenia puesto Un cucurucho tamano; Que por estas senas creo Que era duende capuchino.

This _cucurucho_ was a long conical hat without a brim worn by the clergy in general, and not by the Capuchins alone. A little before, Cosme, when seeking to avert the appearance of the Duende, recites the following lines, which have the appearance of being formed from some popular charm against the House-spirit:

Senora dama duende, Duelase de mi; Que soy nino y solo, Y nunca en tal me vi.

In De Solis' very amusing comedy of Un Bobo hace Ciento, Dona Ana makes the following extremely pretty application of the popular idea of the Duende:

Yo soy, don Luis, una dama Que no conozco este duende Del amor, si no es por fama.

In another of his plays (_El Amor al Uso_), a lady says:

Amor es duende importuno Que al mundo asombrando trae; Todos dicen que le ay, Y no le ha visto ninguno.

The lines from Calderon prefixed to this section of our work, show that money given by the Duende was as unsubstantial as fairy-money in general. This is confirmed by Don Quixote, who tells his rather covetous squire, that "los tesoros de los caballeros andantes son, como los de los Duendes, aparentes y falsos."

The Spaniards seem also to agree with the people of other countries in regarding the Fairies as being fallen angels. One of their most celebrated poets thus expresses himself:

Disputase por hombres entendidos Si fue de _los caidos_ este duende.

Some Spanish etymologists say that Duende is a contraction of _Dueno de casa_; others, that it comes from the Arabic _Duar_, (dwelling) the term used for the Arab camps on the north-coast of Africa. To us it appears more probable that the Visigoths brought their ancient popular creed with them to Spain[528] also, and that as Duerg became Drac in Provence, it was converted into Duende in Spain.[529] It is further not quite impossible that Duerg may be also the original of Trasgo, a word for which we believe no etymon has been proposed.

FOOTNOTES:

[519] Otia Imperialia, p. 982. The Demons must have been some kind of fairies: see above, p. 4.

[520] Related by Sir Francis Palgrave, but without giving any authority, in the Quarterly Review, vol. xxii. See _France_.

[521] In Don Quixote (part i. chap. 50) we read of "los siete castillos de las siete Fadas" beneath the lake of boiling pitch, and of the fair princess who was enchanted in one of them.

[522] _Fada_ is certainly the elided part. of this verb, for the Latin mode of elision (see above p. 7.) was retained in Spanish as well as Italian. Thus _quedo_, _junto_, _harto_, _marchito_, _vacio_, _enjuto_, _violento_, &c., come from _quedar_, _juntar_, _hartar_, &c.