where
the most beautiful carnations in Spain are grown, there is a Carnation
Festival every June, and here the main square actually _is_ paved with
flower petals, laid out in gorgeous designs for the occasion. The land
in the region of Valencia is so fertile that, with the help of the
irrigation system set up long ago by the Moors, the people today grow as
many as four crops a year of rice, vegetables, melons and oranges.

Murcia has a small bit of seacoast, but the rest of it is mostly desert
land where the earth looks like chalk-dust. It gets so hot people can't
go out in the middle of the day. They stay indoors in the cool darkness
as much as possible. Murcia is very much like North Africa, and in some
of the old towns the women still wear heavy veils over their faces the
way the Moors from North Africa did. You wouldn't be at all surprised to
see a camel train in the chalky dust of the dry river bed, but instead,
it's just another procession of little donkeys carrying goods to market
in their straw saddlebags, driven by men hiding under huge hats from the
burning sun.

The regions of Navarre and Aragon, in the northeast, are quite different
from Murcia's desert. They have a rich, mountainous countryside with the
tall Pyrenees marching across the north. Many wild animals are found in
these regions, including some which are rare in other parts of the
world, like the chamois, the ibex, the wild boar, bears, several kinds
of deer, and the great golden eagle. Like other northern regions of
Spain, there's snow in the winter and people go sledding and skiing.

[Illustration]

Just to the north are the Basque Provinces, on the southern slopes of
the Pyrenees and stretching along the Bay of Biscay. The Basque people
are known as the "Mystery Men of Europe," because nobody is sure where
they came from. Nobody knows where the strange language they speak came
from either. We do know that they are a very ancient people, perhaps
direct descendants of the original Iberians. The Basques are fearless
and daring, and are noted throughout the world as excellent sailors and
sheep-herders. When you visit the Basques, you will notice that they all
like to eat enormous meals, they like to gamble, and they like to play
"jai alai," a very fast ball game which they invented.

[Illustration]

"Jai alai" means "happy festival" in the Basque language, and the game
is a very exciting and happy one. The ball, slightly smaller than a
baseba