There Can Be
Little Doubt That They Are A Remnant Of Those Goths Who Sided With
The Moors On Their
Invasion of Spain, and who adopted their
religion, customs, and manner of dress, which, with the exception
of the first,
Are still to a considerable degree retained by them.
It is, however, evident that their blood has at no time mingled
with that of the wild children of the desert, for scarcely amongst
the hills of Norway would you find figures and faces more
essentially Gothic than those of the Maragatos. They are strong
athletic men, but loutish and heavy, and their features, though for
the most part well formed, are vacant and devoid of expression.
They are slow and plain of speech, and those eloquent and
imaginative sallies so common in the conversation of other
Spaniards, seldom or never escape them; they have, moreover, a
coarse thick pronunciation, and when you hear them speak, you
almost imagine that it is some German or English peasant attempting
to express himself in the language of the Peninsula. They are
constitutionally phlegmatic, and it is very difficult to arouse
their anger; but they are dangerous and desperate when once
incensed; and a person who knew them well, told me that he would
rather face ten Valencians, people infamous for their ferocity and
blood-thirstiness, than confront one angry Maragato, sluggish and
stupid though he be on other occasions.
The men scarcely ever occupy themselves in husbandry, which they
abandon to the women, who plough the flinty fields and gather in
the scanty harvests.
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