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142 DAYS IN THE SUN
own case as to the life of nature, so great is their feel-
ing of oneness with nature.
They are not disposed to think out a serious situa-
tion of their own volition; but if you propose a prob-
lem to them they will instantly improvise a conception
that often is characterized by genius, always radical
in its thoroughness, but whose ultimate conclusion is
essentially a matter of indifference to them. Being in-
capable of thinking in league-long chains of thought,
they are not pedagogues and are therefore not en-
cumbered by preconceptions. Enclosed by the four
cold walls, with no other society but that of the naked
problem, any Andalusian intelligence would collapse
like a pricked bubble. But the slightest blaze of an
idea in the glance of another person will be reflected
in his own, and under the influence of this external
mental pressure he rises to higher and higher heights,
alternately fructified and fructifying, until the mental
exchange has ceased. Then he again relapses into the
material world about him.
How this all-pervading material attitude influences
the Andalusian’s religious conceptions in general, I
shall show in another chapter, but now let us return to
Death.
It is obvious that the Andalusian can have no desire
to cleave his nature in twain, into soul and body, and
to pursue the soul in its flight from the body. In spite
of the influence of the Church, the Andalusian is in-
capable of making this mental experiment, which has
become as wide-spread among northerners as the asso-
ciation of foot and sock. Confronted with the ques-
tion of what is to become of him beyond the grave,
the Andalusian can reply only with a shrug of his
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