Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain by Annette M. B. Meakin

Author:Annette M. B. Meakin [Meakin, Annette M. B. (Mary Budgett)]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-08-27T22:00:00+00:00

Note. —I have been obliged, from lack of space, to omit two chapters describing the monasteries of San Martin Pinario, San Lorenzo, San Francisco, and Santo Domingo —four remarkable relics of the Middle Ages which no visitor to Santiago should fail to see.— Author.

CHAPTER XVII

GALICIA’S LIVESTOCK

The pig market—Pigs in every family—Laws relating to pigs and goats—Poultry—Oxen—The ancient plough—Gallegan carts—The music of the cartwheels—Excellent milk—No dairy farms—Horses—Wolves—Foxes—Bears—Hares—Rabbits—Owls and bats—Musk-rats—Wild cats—Partridges—Pheasants—Pigeons—Facts about sardines—Neither a mackerel nor a herring—Dried cod—Trade between Norway and Spain—A heated controversy—The Lamprey—The turbot—The oyster—Eels—Cod—Salmon—Red mullet—Trout

ONE of the most entertaining sights in Santiago is its weekly pig market in the Alameda. Every Thursday morning, women and boys may be seen wending their way thither, each with a young pig in their arms, or—if it is too big to carry—on a string. Every pig so conveyed is a member of some peasant family; it has grown up amongst the children, and often slept in the same room. By eleven o’clock most of the pigs have arrived, and the space allotted to them presents a lively spectacle: a fearful squeaking and squealing prevails. Proud mother pigs stand surrounded by enormous litters. I photographed a group of thirty little squeakers, all wedged tightly together back to back, and then measured a parent pig with my umbrella. Gallegan pigs are not well bred; their legs are far too long, the backs of several were exactly the height of my umbrella, they were like plants that had run to seed, not fat and round like the English commodity. The Gallegan pig is a melancholy example of the crass ignorance of the peasants; they invariably kill off those that would make the best breeders, and vice versa. English pigs have, however, been occasionally imported. On the road to Coruña I once pointed to a group of pigs, and asked the woman to whom they belonged what she called them. “Cerdos,” she replied; “but in your country you call them Chinas.” She knew something about English pigs, and the word she had got hold of was our word “Chine,” and corresponded to “porker.” On another occasion I happened to make a remark to the municipal architect on Santiago’s wealth of pigs.

“This abundance of pigs is a peculiarity of Santiago,” was the reply. “You will find it nowhere else; they live amongst us, even in our best streets; there are two pigs living now in a family on the second floor in the principal street in the town close to our finest shops; a thin partition is all that separates them at night from the children’s bedroom. Our streets are full of pigs; it is dreadful.”

On my mentioning the matter to my hostess, she replied, “Yes, it is quite true; but we have other animals besides pigs—on the second floor of the house you can see from your window there are two young goats being brought up as members of the family.”

But pigs and goats must have been plentiful in the town of Orense as far back

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