, a porter, a water-carrier,
almost a beast of burden, and the Galicians are as well known for this
purpose in Portugal as in Spain, great numbers finding ready employment
in the former country, where manual labour is looked upon as impossible
for a native. The men of the lowest class emigrate to more favoured
provinces, since their own is too poor to support them; they work hard,
and return with their savings to their native hills. Their
fellow-countrymen consider them boorish in manners, uneducated, and of a
low class; but they are good-natured and docile, hard-working,
temperate, and honest. "In your life," wrote the Duke of Wellington,
"you never saw anything so bad as the Galicians; and yet they are the
finest body of men and the best movers I have ever seen." There is a
greater similarity between Galicia and Portugal than between the former
and any other province of Spain.

Although they lie so close together, Asturias differs widely from its
sister province both in the character of its people and its scenery. The
Romans took two hundred years to subdue it, and the Moors never obtained
a footing there. The Asturians are a hardy, independent race, proud of
giving the title to the heir-apparent of the Spanish throne. The people
of this province, like their neighbours the Basques, are handsome and
robust in appearance; they are always to be recognised in Madrid by
their fresh appearance and excellent physique. For the most part they
are to be found engaged in the fish trade, while their women, gorgeously
dressed in their native costume by their employers, are the nurses of
the upper classes.

[Illustration: VALENCIANOS]

The ladies of Madrid do not think it "good style" to bring up their own
children, and the Asturian wet nurse is as much a part of the ordinary
household as the coachman or _mayordomo_. They are singularly handsome,
well-grown women, and become great favourites in the houses of their
employers; but, like their menkind, they go back to spend their savings
among their beloved hills. Many of these young women come to Madrid on
the chance of finding situations, leaving their own babies behind to be
fed by hand, or Heaven knows how; they bring with them a young puppy to
act as substitute until the nurse-child is found, and may be seen in the
registry offices waiting to be hired, with their little canine
foster-children. It is said that the Asturian women never part from the
puppies that they have fed fr