Journeying south, the verdure fades. The African Sahara hurdles the Strait to lay a parching hand on this southern part of the Iberian Peninsula. Here are high hedges of agave, cork oaks, and gnarled olive trees. Olives are pounded into pulp, which is squeezed in the press. With the masses, olive oil takes the place of butter. On the coast lies Setubal, whose sardine and tunny fisheries were known in the days of the Romans. The south was the first part of the country to be Romanized. Yearly the export of canned sardines amounts to millions of dollars. The chief city of the Alemtejo is Evora, one of the most ancient-appearing towns of Europe, off the tourist routes. South of the Alemtejo lies the Algarve (El Gharb, the West of the Moors). This is the land of cork oaks, under which goatherds pasture their flocks. and swineherds their pigs, on acorns. Arena sports, fights between men and beasts, are old in Iberia, as when prisoners were pitted against lions; but in Portugal now bullfighting is humane. The bull's horns are padded and he is never killed. Note the bull, having charged the outlet gates, is returning to the ring. The export of raw and manufactured cork is important. In the Algarve we saw many household articles made from cork, including the covered dinner pails used by the workers in the forest. We traveled by rail to the port of Faro, on the southern coast, and east to the Guadiana River, which here forms the boundary between Portugal and Spain. We made a sentimental pilgrimage to Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, the extreme southwestern point of Portugal, jutting into the Atlantic, where, in the fifteenth century, Prince Henry maintained his nau tical school. The foundations of the buildings are still to be seen. Five hundred years ago the Portuguese had no part in the Far Eastern trade. The spices that made the coarse food of those days palatable, the drugs, cosmetics, silks, and precious stones, in such demand by the luxury-loving classes of Europe, then came by a circuitous and costly route from India (see text, page 511). Between Calicut and Alexandria, distributing point for Europe, the goods were taxed five times. After the Portuguese capture of Ceuta, Prince Henry talked with intelligent WHEN THE MONDEGO RIVER IS LOW, BOATS ARE POLED UPSTREAM Fruit, wine, slate, wood, and other freight are hauled to market on these quaint river sailboats. The sardine is to Portugal what the banana is to Costa Rica. These sardine peddlers wear a special tin hat, in which they carry their fish basket. To keep water from running down the back of their necks, their tin hats are fitted with gutters. The man under the window is using his tin hat to sit on. AS MOORISH AS THE SKYLINE OF MUSKAT OR MECCA Long ago the Moors were driven from Iberia; but even to-day, in North Africa, they fight their ancient foes. An old Moorish castle at Cintra. HUNTING FOR WORM-HOLES IN CABBAGE: LEIRIA The colewort, or cabbage, family is popular in Portugal. Cabbage, dried codfish, and potatoes are a favorite peasant dish. Even the rich of Lisbon come north to the Minho in summer to cool off and eat "calda verde," or soup with greens. The man wears one of the A CAPACITY LOAD, BUT VERY LIGHT Portugal makes wine and seals it with her own corks. In the Algarve district vast forests of cork oaks abound. Here the cutting and export of cork is a large industry. WHAT A WELL-DRESSED LISBON DONKEY MAY WEAR Rum, gasoline, olive oil, kerosene, and vinegar-about every household liquid except iced tea and hair tonic-is carried as deck cargo by this peddler's mechanical-looking mule. In many European countries housewives buy only a day's allowance of fuel and foodstuffs, such as one or two eggs or a few sticks of wood at a time. |