intricate patterns with fine steel. When the piece is put into a hot
furnace, the steel part of the pattern turns black, then the gold and
silver designs are polished until they shine. Originally the Moors made
their big swords this way, but today Toledo ware is bracelets, earrings,
cuff links and other small jewelry.

The people of Toledo also make glistening glazed tiles. Some of these
show scenes from the lives of favorite Spanish heroes, real and
imaginary. There are some Toledo tiles that will tell you about Don
Quixote of La Mancha, a hero invented 350 years ago by Miguel Cervantes.

[Illustration]

Cervantes wanted to tease his fellow countrymen about reading so many
books with stories that could never happen in real life. So he wrote a
book of his own about Don Quixote, a foolish old fellow who imagined he
was a handsome knight. The poor Don rode all around the country on a
rickety old horse dreaming he was rescuing beautiful ladies and
fighting imaginary battles for his king. Once he even tried to fight a
windmill, thinking it was a giant! Another time he thought a shepherd
and his flock were an army!

Cervantes' fun-poking book is still read and laughed over by people
throughout the whole world. Today, if you were to drive from Granada to
Toledo or Madrid, you would pass through Don Quixote's country, La
Mancha, and you would see windmills and the shepherds leading their
sheep and goats, with all the countryside looking much as Cervantes
described it through Don Quixote's eyes.

Wherever you stopped for the night, you would see a great
walking-around, which begins at 7 o'clock. Every family comes out to
join in this evening custom which is called "paseo." Of course the
children come too, dressed in their best clothes. But boys and girls do
not walk together. Two or three girls will walk by, arm-in-arm, and
several boys will walk by, talking together and looking at the girls
from the corner of their eyes. In the smaller places, all the older boys
walk together in one direction while all the older girls walk arm-in-arm
in the opposite direction, or else on the other side of the street.

Just as boys and girls don't walk together in the paseo, they don't
often play games together either--at least not after they are old enough
to go to school. Before school days start, all children play singing
and dancing games something like our "London Bridge." They play tag and
a favorite game called "Hit the Pot." The