24
THE MESTA
march of migrants in other countries.1 In Castile the only cere-
mony was the daubing of the sheep with almagre, a reddish earth,
thought by some writers to be intended as a dressing for the wool,
and by others as a mark of ownership to minimize the confusion
during the breaking up of the encampments. The animals of
each owner were branded with his mark, and were kept together
on the march.2 All of his flocks, pack train, horses, cows, and
swine, taken together as a group, were known as his cabana.3
The cabana real, however, meant, not the flocks of the king, but
the entire pastoral industry of the realm as governed by the
king’s decrees. This definition was used to check the military
orders and powerful ecclesiastics when they undertook to form a
great cabana not subject to those decrees.4 Each cabana was
under the general charge of a chief herdsman (mayoral), and was
divided into flocks or rebanos of about a thousand head each.5
Smaller flocks were called hatos, manadas, or pastorias.i The
rebano included five rams (morruecos) and twenty-five bell-
wethers (encencerrados), and was in charge of a herder with four
boys as assistants (zagales, rabadanes) and five dogs (maslines).
1 The details here given on the practices of the migrants while on the march are
from Manuel del Rio, Vida pastoril (Madrid, 1828),a curious account by a shepherd
who dedicated his observations on his trade to the Mesta; Cano, op. cit.; William
Bowles, Introduccidn d la Hist. Natural . . . de Espana (1782), pp. $20-530. See
also Bertaux and Yver, “L’Italie inconnu,” in Le Tour du Monde, 1899,pp. 270ff.,
on practices of migrants in southern Italy, and Martonne, op. cit., on pastoral
festivities in the Carpathians.
2 Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 244 (1499). There is no ground for the theory, some-
times expressed, that the name Mesta originated in the mixing of the flocks of dif-
ferent owners at the outset of the migrations.
3 Ibid., pt. i, p. 49 (1347). The name cabana was also applied to the cabin of
a shepherd. See above, p. 5.
4 Nueva Recop., lib. 9. tit. 27, ley ιι.
5 In documents of the thirteenth century the rebano is frequently called the
grey; cf. Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19—1, Fueros, privilegios ■ ∙ ∙ municipales, i, p. 422
(Alarcon, 1252). A law of 1563 which stipulated that the rebano be made up of
a hundred instead of a thousand head, seems to have had no effect: Cerbantes,
Recopilacidn de reales Ordenanzas de Bosques, p. 652.
β Arch. Osuna, Béjar Mss., caj. 33, no. ɪɪ (1457). The horses, oxen, or mules
of a given locality were frequently herded together for short migrations. In
Aragon and Navarre such herds were called adulas, dulas, or nicer as : Jordana, Voces
Forestales, p. 10; Borao, Voces Aragonesas, pp. 145, 353.
MIGRATIONS
25
The latter were looked after with special care; in fact, they are
still given the benefit of every consideration both by modern
Spanish law and by all interested in the pastoral industry. The
food allotment was the same as that for the shepherds. Injuries
done to them were punishable by fines ranging upward from five
sheep. The possession of a stray sheep dog was illegal, unless
authorized by the Mesta at one of its annual meetings.1
The rebano was accompanied by several beasts of burden which
carried the equipment : the long net which served as the sheepfold
at night, the leather bottles and primitive cooking utensils, the
food for men and dogs, the salt for the flocks, and the skins of
animals which died on the march.2 The quota of salt was about
a hundredweight for each rebano, nearly all of which was con-
sumed in the upland pastures. One of the most cherished of the
Mesta’s exemptions was that which freed it from the heavy salt
tax.3
The few animals destined to be sold as mutton were given salt
frequently in order to have them drink much water, which was
supposed to fatten them. The use of mutton, however, was very
uncommon in Spain, probably because migrations made the
merino very tough 4 and because it was regarded as of greater
value for its wool. In place of mutton, much pork was eaten,
both because of its high quality, which was due largely to the
abundance of acorn fodder, and because its consumption re-
moved suspicions of Judaism.5 It is curious to note that in a
1 Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 222. The present day Asociaci6n General de Ganaderos,
the successor to the Mesta, devotes considerable attention to the maintenance ot
the better breeds of sheep dogs. The Castilian sheep dog was a short haired, heavy,
muscular animal, capable of withstanding the fatigue of the long marches and of
defending his charges against wolves and thieves, both of which were plentiful.
Good types of these animals are shown in some of Velasquez’s paintings.
2 Arch. Osuna, Bejar Mss., caj. 58, no. 19 (1634): an inventory of one of these
flocks.
3 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 99, 101-102 (1528, 1571, 1592).
4 The breed retains this characteristic today, even in regions where no migra-
tions are undertaken.
5 J. C. Dunlop, Memoirs of Spain during the Rcigns of Philip IV and Charles II
b834, 2 vols.), ii, p. 399. Sorapân, in his Medicina Espanola (1616), pp. 130 fl.,
endeavored to increase the use of mutton by recommending its supposed medicinal
qualities.