OCR Text |
Show 3 su B aiixuXe6 r - s , ; Vv Street Scene In Palma, Majorca Island. (Prepared by National Geographic Society. Washington. D. C.) WNU Service. A ITER more than four centuries cen-turies of government by European Euro-pean nations, the Balearic islands, now Spanish-owned, are seeking autonomy under the provisions pro-visions of the new Spanish constitution. constitu-tion. It is doubtful if there is in the world's geographic photograph album a family group whose members show as little family resemblance as do those of the Balearlcs. Majorca, the big sister, so well known to the world, sits in the center, full-grown and radiantly radi-antly beautiful. Minorca, slight and delicate, yet with a grace that suggests sug-gests a certain knowledge of the world, sits at her side. While Majorca is manifestly a daughter of Spain, Minorca's features and person partake of the north a strange mixture of English and possibly pos-sibly a little Dutch with the Spanish. On the big sister's other hand, Ivlza, a charming peasant in bright apron, skirt and shawl, hung with barbaric jewelry, piques the interest of the genealogist, for in her a different strain, probably Arabic, seems to predominate. pre-dominate. She gazes out of the picture pic-ture with level, quiet eyes that are a bit mysterious and disconcerting. Her face Is unsmiling, even slightly smudgy, but still peculiarly attractive. attrac-tive. At her feet is Formentera island, one of the two babies, almost Iviza's counterpart In face and dress. It seems unkind to draw attention to Cabrera, the other baby, crouched at Majorca's feet, for she is a spare, pathetic little figure, maltreated since birth. In her plain face are to be read the signs of misery. Such are the sister islands, and their description fits their people. The islanders are the plensantest of folk to visit simple-hearted, even-tempered, sober-minded, honest, and kindly. The welcome accorded the traveler in the Balearics differs according to island. Majorca greets the stranger with easy familiarity, for she has known many tourists In the last few years; Minorca with quiet grace; and Iviza shyly; but the warmth of welcome wel-come is never in doubt Ask a passer-by to indicate the direction to a store or hotel ; you will be escorted to the door and bowed in, and generally you must not offer anything more material ma-terial than thanks in return. The ideal Balearic climate contributes contrib-utes enormously to the traveler's comfort, com-fort, and, in contrast to what one often experiences on the continent, it is a gratifying surprise to find the fondas, or inns, invariably clean and their meals wholesome. Mahon Has a Fine Harbor. One of the outstanding features of the Balearic group is the abundance and excellence of its harbors. Mahon, tlie principal city of Minorca, Is an example. One's ship picks its way down a water lane, through pink and gray shores capped with rolling green, into what the Spanish government plans to make one of the finest harbors har-bors in the Mediterranean. Ever since Mago, the brother of Hannibal, wintered in this harbor (which still bears his name, Portus Magonis, now corrupted to Mahon), It has been famed as a refuge for ships, and its usefulness will be greatly increased in-creased when the Island of the Rats, a small knob of rock In the center of the basin, is removed. The islanders tell proudly how in 1708 Lord Nelson, during the war with France, came into Mahon with his squadron, seized the mansion that overlooked the port where his ships rode, and installed the lovely Lady Hamilton. But the town's historians smile rather sadly and admit that, while history is replete with incidents of Nelson's visit, it does not bear out the story of Lady Hamilton. And then Mahon ! That is the way it comes. Suddenly, as the vessel rounds a point, it bursts into view, a quick splash of pink and white on the hillside, tier after tier of quaint streets, splendid in the sunshine. Mahon sparkles, as does the whole island. It Is a maze of spotless up-and-down-hill streets of shining dolls' houses. From the steamer's deck the town, terrace upon terrace of white houses, with the spires of the inevitable inevit-able churches dominating the mass, appears ap-pears pure Spanish ; but that Is Just Mahon's little joke on the visitor, for many of the houses show English features fea-tures peering from under their Spanish Span-ish sombreros. This mixture of the English and Spanish gives Mahon a character of its own, which is shared by it s people. It Is the women who refuses to conform. con-form. In continental Spain anil In the other islands they take tholr places in the fields with the men and the beasts of burden. Not so with upstanding Miss Minorca! She believes that "woman's plnce Is in the home" or possibly, as a concession to the march of the times, in the factory, but not lu the field, and there she refuses to go. Minorca Spurns Alpargatas. Quite as remarkable, the nlpargata, the rope-soled canvas sandal of Spain and the rest of the Balearics. Is practically prac-tically extinct here. Whether it is that Minorca, producing a large proportion pro-portion of the fine shoes sold In Spain, excludes this humble footwear from a feeling of local pride, or whatever the reason, the fact remains that Minorca wears shoes. The Balearics are rich in relics, from the days of the prehistoric Inhabitants Inhab-itants of the Mediterranean countries on down to modern times. Castles, churches, palaces, forts, and watch-towers watch-towers are seen so frequently that they become almost matters of course. ' In Minorca there are still standing more than 200 of the talayots, taul.n and naus stone structures generally supposed to have been used in connection connec-tion with prehistoric religious ceremonials cere-monials and the burial of the dead and the cliffs and mountains are liter-nlly liter-nlly honeycombed with oaves. Within twenty minutes' walk of Mahon Ma-hon there is a fairly well-preserved talayot', a truncated cone of huge stones, probably 40 feet In diameler and 25 feet in height, with a large taula near by. Surrounding the talayot, tal-ayot, and marking another age in Minorcan history, are the walls of a fort built probably of the stones of the talayot. The surrounding fields are strewn with fragments of pottery from prehistoric pre-historic times on down through the Phoenician, Grecian, Roman and Arabic Ara-bic occupations, and the high stone walls over which one scrambles to reach the charmed hilltop are capped with other fragments laboriously picked from the fields by the Island farmers. The deepest thrill for the visitor to Minorca is to be found in its prehistoric pre-historic caves. A talayot, taula, or nau Is an awe-inspiring sight when one realizes what it stands for, but It has not the Instantaneous effect on the Imagination made by one of those cave homes of no one knows how many years ago. " The Cove Caves. The Calas Covas, or Cove Caves, comprise a group in one of the many coves that Indent the Minorcan shore, and certainly a better location from a dramatic standpoint could not have been selected by the cavemen. The cove is a wild, winding gash In the shore, descending sharply from the interior in-terior tableland to the sea. The approach to the caves is along a narrow path hedged by a matted 6crub growth and by fragments of the cove walls, which during the ages have become dislodged and have crashed to the valley. At' the water level these walls are high, jagged, and precipitous; the sea beats and snaps at them and the place itself compels awe. Wild deeds are plainly Indicated. Add, then, to all this the effect of gome forty black apertures extending from the water line to the tops of the cliffs all made by man when the human forehead was lower and human life more precarious than it is now. It Is a meager imagination, Indeed, that does not immediately people the cove with small, active men, wide between be-tween the cheekbones and as agile as monkeys. WTe can conjure up the picture pic-ture and see them leaping among the crags to their eerie homes, chattering chatter-ing and bickering and certainly ready to make it most unpleasant for foreign for-eign Invaders such as ourselves. Palma, the principal city of Majorca, Ma-jorca, is snugly situated at the central point of a magnificent horseshoe bay. Like all other waters of these remarkable remark-able islands, the Bay of Palma could supply half the colors of an artist's palette. The left-hand prong of the horseshoe shore, as one steams toward the city, was the scene of the first fighting between Don Jaime I, the Conqueror, Con-queror, and the defending Moors in 1220 A. D., and It is on this prong that Palma's fashionable tourist section has sprung up, with stately I'.ellver castle, built by Jaime II. overlookiim it from the top of a handsome wnnded. hill. Palma Itself is a country vilhtL-e Of 100,000 people and of considerable commercial Importance. |