Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XII. The Bullfight
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262 DAYS IN THE SUN
and Barcelona there are performances every Sunday
during the season (in summer). The Spaniard is not
interested in corridas during the winter, since the cold
prevents the steer from showing the necessary aggres-
siveness; he cannot be so easily inflamed. In somewhat
smaller cities these tournaments take place only once
or twice a month; in cities as small as Granada they
may be seen only on the great annual feast days: the
Resurrection, the Ascension and certain holy days.
In the provincial places there are no arenas at all;
and in such towns, perhaps two hundred and fifty miles
away from the nearest spectacle, people will deny
themselves and slave on a pittance for years, looking
forward to the great journey they will one day make
to the city to see the spectacle. Some succeed in mak-
ing the trip once in their lives; some never make it.
But the rumors of the corridas trickle down into the
provincial villages through the most varied courses,
making the whole population quiver. And when
Easter brings the world-famous corridas to Seville, in
the villages the peasants drive their most power-
ful bull to the village market-place, barricade with
wagon-walls all the thoroughfares that radiate from
the market-place and hold bullfights of their own. The
bull has buttons at the tips of his horns, and sometimes
around his neck a long rope, the ends of which are
held by several men. The young fellows of the village,
sometimes even the young girls, will dash at the bull,
and provoke him by waving red cloths, whereupon they
run away or are tossed by the bull. Few of these
affairs end without broken arms and legs. On roofs
and balconies, and on the wagons barricading the
street, the onlookers are seated. They shout and roar,
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