Below the Town of the Grape Vines, which shortens to Las Uvas for common use, the land dips away to the river pastures and the tulares. It shrouds4 under a twilight5 thicket6 of vines, under a dome7 of cottonwood-trees, drowsy8 and murmurous9 as a hive. Hereabouts are some strips of tillage and the headgates that dam up the creek10 for the village weirs11; upstream you catch the growl12 of the arrastra. Wild vines that begin among the willows13 lap over to the orchard14 rows, take the trellis and roof-tree.
There is another town above Las Uvas that merits some attention, a town of arches and airy crofts, full of linnets, blackbirds, fruit birds, small sharp hawks15, and mockingbirds that sing by night. They pour out piercing, unendurably sweet cavatinas above the fragrance16 of bloom and musky smell of fruit. Singing is in fact the business of the night at Las Uvas as sleeping is for midday. When the moon comes over the mountain wall new-washed from the sea, and the shadows lie like lace on the stamped floors of the patios17, from recess18 to recess of the vine tangle19 runs the thrum of guitars and the voice of singing.
At Las Uvas they keep up all the good customs brought out of Old Mexico or bred in a lotus-eating land; drink, and are merry and look out for something to eat afterward20; have children, nine or ten to a family, have cock-fights, keep the siesta21, smoke cigarettes and wait for the sun to go down. And always they dance; at dusk on the smooth adobe22 floors, afternoons under the trellises where the earth is damp and has a fruity smell. A betrothal23, a wedding, or a christening, or the mere24 proximity25 of a guitar is sufficient occasion; and if the occasion lacks, send for the guitar and dance anyway.
All this requires explanation. Antonio Sevadra, drifting this way from Old Mexico with the flood that poured into the Tappan district after the first notable strike, discovered La Golondrina. It was a generous lode26 and Tony a good fellow; to work it he brought in all the Sevadras, even to the twice-removed; all the Castros who were his wife's family, all the Saises, Romeros, and Eschobars,—the relations of his relations-in-law. There you have the beginning of a pretty considerable town. To these accrued27 much of the Spanish California float swept out of the southwest by eastern enterprise. They slacked away again when the price of silver went down, and the ore dwindled28 in La Golondrina. All the hot eddy29 of mining life swept away from that corner of the hills, but there were always those too idle, too poor to move, or too easily content with El Pueblo de Las Uvas.
Nobody comes nowadays to the town of the grape vines except, as we say, "with the breath of crying," but of these enough. All the low sills run over with small heads. Ah, ah! There is a kind of pride in that if you did but know it, to have your baby every year or so as the time sets, and keep a full breast. So great a blessing30 as marriage is easily come by. It is told of Ruy Garcia that when he went for his marriage license31 he lacked a dollar of the clerk's fee, but borrowed it of the sheriff, who expected reelection and exhibited thereby32 a commendable33 thrift34. Of what account is it to lack meal or meat when you may have it of any neighbor? Besides, there is sometimes a point of honor in these things. Jesus Romero, father of ten, had a job sacking ore in the Marionette35 which he gave up of his own accord. "Eh, why?" said Jesus, "for my fam'ly."
"It is so, senora," he said solemnly, "I go to the Marionette, I work, I eat meat—pie—frijoles—good, ver' good. I come home sad'day nigh' I see my fam'ly. I play lil' game poker36 with the boys, have lil' drink wine, my money all gone. My fam'ly have no money, nothing eat. All time I work at mine I eat, good, ver' good grub. I think sorry for my fam'ly. No, no, senora, I no work no more that Marionette, I stay with my fam'ly." The wonder of it is, I think, that the family had the same point of view.
Every house in the town of the vines has its garden plot, corn and brown beans and a row of peppers reddening in the sun; and in damp borders of the irrigating37 ditches clumps38 of yerbasanta, horehound, catnip, and spikenard, wholesome39 herbs and curative, but if no peppers then nothing at all. You will have for a holiday dinner, in Las Uvas, soup with meat balls and chile in it, chicken with chile, rice with chile, fried beans with more chile, enchilada, which is corn cake with the sauce of chile and tomatoes, onion, grated cheese, and olives, and for a relish40 chile tepines passed about in a dish, all of which is comfortable and corrective to the stomach. You will have wine which every man makes for himself, of good body and inimitable bouquet41, and sweets that are not nearly so nice as they look.
There are two occasions when you may count on that kind of a meal; always on the Sixteenth of September, and on the two-yearly visits of Father Shannon. It is absurd, of course, that El Pueblo de Las Uvas should have an Irish priest, but Black Rock, Minton, Jimville, and all that country round do not find it so. Father Shannon visits them all, waits by the Red Butte to confess the shepherds who go through with their flocks, carries blessing to small and isolated42 mines, and so in the course of a year or so works around to Las Uvas to bury and marry and christen. Then all the little graves in the Campo Santo are brave with tapers43, the brown pine headboards blossom like Aaron's rod with paper roses and bright cheap prints of Our Lady of Sorrows. Then the Senora Sevadra, who thinks herself elect of heaven for that office, gathers up the original sinners, the little Elijias, Lolas, Manuelitas, Joses, and Felipes, by dint44 of adjurations and sweets smuggled45 into small perspiring46 palms, to fit them for the Sacrament.
I used to peek47 in at them, never so softly, in Dona Ina's living-room; Raphael-eyed little imps48, going sidewise on their knees to rest them from the bare floor, candles lit on the mantel to give a religious air, and a great sheaf of wild bloom before the Holy Family. Come Sunday they set out the altar in the schoolhouse, with the fine-drawn altar cloths, the beaten silver candlesticks, and the wax images, chief glory of Las Uvas, brought up mule-back from Old Mexico forty years ago. All in white the communicants go up two and two in a hushed, sweet awe49 to take the body of their Lord, and Tomaso, who is priest's boy, tries not to look unduly50 puffed51 up by his office. After that you have dinner and a bottle of wine that ripened52 on the sunny slope of Escondito. All the week Father Shannon has shriven his people, who bring clean conscience to the betterment of appetite, and the Father sets them an example. Father Shannon is rather big about the middle to accommodate the large laugh that lives in him, but a most shrewd searcher of hearts. It is reported that one derives53 comfort from his confessional, and I for my part believe it.
The celebration of the Sixteenth, though it comes every year, takes as long to prepare for as Holy Communion. The senoritas have each a new dress apiece, the senoras a new rebosa. The young gentlemen have new silver trimmings to their sombreros, unspeakable ties, silk handkerchiefs, and new leathers to their spurs. At this time when the peppers glow in the gardens and the young quail1 cry "cuidado," "have a care!" you can hear the plump, plump of the metate from the alcoves54 of the vines where comfortable old dames55, whose experience gives them the touch of art, are pounding out corn for tamales.
School-teachers from abroad have tried before now at Las Uvas to have school begin on the first of September, but got nothing else to stir in the heads of the little Castros, Garcias, and Romeros but feasts and cock-fights until after the Sixteenth. Perhaps you need to be told that this is the anniversary of the Republic, when liberty awoke and cried in the provinces of Old Mexico. You are aroused at midnight to hear them shouting in the streets, "Vive la Libertad!" answered from the houses and the recesses56 of the vines, "Vive la Mexico!" At sunrise shots are fired commemorating57 the tragedy of unhappy Maximilian, and then music, the noblest of national hymns58, as the great flag of Old Mexico floats up the flag-pole in the bare little plaza60 of shabby Las Uvas. The sun over Pine Mountain greets the eagle of Montezuma before it touches the vineyards and the town, and the day begins with a great shout. By and by there will be a reading of the Declaration of Independence and an address punctured61 by vives; all the town in its best dress, and some exhibits of horsemanship that make lathered62 bits and bloody63 spurs; also a cock-fight.
By night there will be dancing, and such music! old Santos to play the flute64, a little lean man with a saintly countenance65, young Garcia whose guitar has a soul, and Carrasco with the violin. They sit on a high platform above the dancers in the candle flare66, backed by the red, white, and green of Old Mexico, and play fervently67 such music as you will not hear otherwhere.
At midnight the flag comes down. Count yourself at a loss if you are not moved by that performance. Pine Mountain watches whitely overhead, shepherd fires glow strongly on the glooming hills. The plaza, the bare glistening68 pole, the dark folk, the bright dresses, are lit ruddily by a bonfire. It leaps up to the eagle flag, dies down, the music begins softly and aside. They play airs of old longing69 and exile; slowly out of the dark the flag drops down, bellying70 and falling with the midnight draught71. Sometimes a hymn59 is sung, always there are tears. The flag is down; Tony Sevadra has received it in his arms. The music strikes a barbaric swelling72 tune73, another flag begins a slow ascent,—it takes a breath or two to realize that they are both, flag and tune, the Star Spangled Banner,—a volley is fired, we are back, if you please, in California of America. Every youth who has the blood of patriots74 in him lays ahold on Tony Sevadra's flag, happiest if he can get a corner of it. The music goes before, the folk fall in two and two, singing. They sing everything, America, the Marseillaise, for the sake of the French shepherds hereabout, the hymn of Cuba, and the Chilian national air to comfort two families of that land. The flag goes to Dona Ina's, with the candlesticks and the altar cloths, then Las Uvas eats tamales and dances the sun up the slope of Pine Mountain.
You are not to suppose that they do not keep the Fourth, Washington's Birthday, and Thanksgiving at the town of the grape vines. These make excellent occasions for quitting work and dancing, but the Sixteenth is the holiday of the heart. On Memorial Day the graves have garlands and new pictures of the saints tacked75 to the headboards. There is great virtue76 in an Ave said in the Camp of the Saints. I like that name which the Spanish speaking people give to the garden of the dead, Campo Santo, as if it might be some bed of healing from which blind souls and sinners rise up whole and praising God. Sometimes the speech of simple folk hints at truth the understanding does not reach. I am persuaded only a complex soul can get any good of a plain religion. Your earthborn is a poet and a symbolist. We breed in an environment of asphalt pavements a body of people whose creeds78 are chiefly restrictions79 against other people's way of life, and have kitchens and latrines under the same roof that houses their God. Such as these go to church to be edified80, but at Las Uvas they go for pure worship and to entreat81 their God. The logical conclusion of the faith that every good gift cometh from God is the open hand and the finer courtesy. The meal done without buys a candle for the neighbor's dead child. You do foolishly to suppose that the candle does no good.
At Las Uvas every house is a piece of earth—thick walled, whitewashed82 adobe that keeps the even temperature of a cave; every man is an accomplished83 horseman and consequently bowlegged; every family keeps dogs, flea-bitten mongrels that loll on the earthen floors. They speak a purer Castilian than obtains in like villages of Mexico, and the way they count relationship everybody is more or less akin77. There is not much villainy among them. What incentive84 to thieving or killing85 can there be when there is little wealth and that to be had for the borrowing! If they love too hotly, as we say "take their meat before grace," so do their betters. Eh, what! shall a man be a saint before he is dead? And besides, Holy Church takes it out of you one way or another before all is done. Come away, you who are obsessed86 with your own importance in the scheme of things, and have got nothing you did not sweat for, come away by the brown valleys and full-bosomed hills to the even-breathing days, to the kindliness87, earthiness, ease of El Pueblo de Las Uvas.
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1
quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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quails
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| 鹌鹑( quail的名词复数 )； 鹌鹑肉 | |
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pueblo
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| n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄 | |
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shrouds
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| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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murmurous
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| adj.低声的 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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weirs
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| n.堰，鱼梁（指拦截游鱼的枝条篱）( weir的名词复数 ) | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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hawks
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| 鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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patios
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| n.露台，平台( patio的名词复数 ) | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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siesta
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| n.午睡 | |
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adobe
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| n.泥砖，土坯，美国Adobe公司 | |
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betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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lode
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| n.矿脉 | |
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accrued
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| adj.权责已发生的v.增加( accrue的过去式和过去分词 )；（通过自然增长）产生；获得；（使钱款、债务）积累 | |
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dwindled
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| v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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thrift
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| adj.节约，节俭；n.节俭，节约 | |
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marionette
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| n.木偶 | |
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poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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irrigating
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| 灌溉( irrigate的现在分词 )； 冲洗（伤口） | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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39
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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40
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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tapers
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| （长形物体的）逐渐变窄( taper的名词复数 )； 微弱的光； 极细的蜡烛 | |
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44
dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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peek
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| vi.偷看，窥视；n.偷偷的一看，一瞥 | |
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imps
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| n.（故事中的）小恶魔( imp的名词复数 )；小魔鬼；小淘气；顽童 | |
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49
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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50
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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51
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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52
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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54
alcoves
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| n.凹室( alcove的名词复数 )；（花园）凉亭；僻静处；壁龛 | |
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55
dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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56
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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57
commemorating
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| v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 ) | |
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hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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60
plaza
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| n.广场，市场 | |
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61
punctured
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| v.在（某物）上穿孔( puncture的过去式和过去分词 )；刺穿（某物）；削弱（某人的傲气、信心等）；泄某人的气 | |
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62
lathered
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| v.（指肥皂）形成泡沫( lather的过去式和过去分词 )；用皂沫覆盖；狠狠地打 | |
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63
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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64
flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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65
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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66
flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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68
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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69
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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70
bellying
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| 鼓出部；鼓鼓囊囊 | |
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71
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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72
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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73
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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74
patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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75
tacked
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| 用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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edified
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| v.开导，启发( edify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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incentive
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| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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85
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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obsessed
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| adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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