own style, with little or no colloquialism, but they are simpler. They
also, in their turn, are broken up by words or phrases from the language
of the speaker. The effect of this must vary with the reader. The
learned will not pause, some of the unlearned will be impatient. But as
a glossary was afterwards granted at Ford's suggestion, and is now to be
had in the cheapest editions of "The Bible in Spain," these few hundred
Spanish or Gypsy words are at least no serious stumbling block. I find
them a very distinct additional flavour in the style. A good writer can
afford these mysteries. Children do not boggle at the unpronounceable
names of a good book like "The Arabian Nights," but rather use them as
charms, like Izaak Walton's marrow of the thighbone of a heron or a piece
of mummy. The bullfighter speaks:

"'Cavaliers and strong men, this cavalier is the friend of a friend of
mine. _Es mucho hombre_. There is none like him in Spain. He speaks
the crabbed _Gitano_, though he is an _Inglesito_.'

"'We do not believe it,' replied several grave voices. 'It is not
possible.'

"'It is not possible, say you? I tell you it is.--Come forward,
Balseiro, you who have been in prison all your life, and are always
boasting that you can speak the crabbed _Gitano_, though I say you know
nothing of it--come forward and speak to his worship in the crabbed
_Gitano_.'

"A low, slight, but active figure stepped forward. He was in his shirt
sleeves, and wore a _montero_ cap; his features were handsome, but they
were those of a demon.

"He spoke a few words in the broken Gypsy slang of the prison, inquiring
of me whether I had ever been in the condemned cell, and whether I knew
what a _gitana_ was.

"'_Vamos Inglesito_,' shouted Sevilla, in a voice of thunder, 'answer the
_monro_ in the crabbed _Gitano_.'

"I answered the robber, for such he was, and one, too, whose name will
live for many years in the ruffian histories of Madrid--I answered him in
a speech of some length, in the dialect of the Estremenian Gypsies.

"'I believe it is the crabbed _Gitano_,' muttered Balseiro. 'It is
either that or English, for I understand not a word of it.'

"'Did I not say to you,' cried the bullfighter, 'that you knew nothing of
the crabbed _Gitano_? But this _Inglesito_ does. I understood all he
said. _Vaya_, there is none like him for the crabbed _Gitano_. He is a
good _ginete_, too; next to myself, there is none like him,