A Spanish Legend

According to an ancient legend a favored mortal won from the gods permission to ask three blessings for Spain. He asked that "her sons should be brave, her daughters beautiful, and her government good." The first two were granted, but the third refused; for, said the answer, "Already she is an earthly Paradise, and were this last blessing hers, the very gods themselves would desert Elysium and go down to dwell in Spain."

An early Spanish historian maintains that the first settlers of the Peninsula were borne thither through the air by angels. No other mode of conveyance was worthy the dignity and grandeur of the Spanish nation, and as the Spaniards date the settlement of their country from a time soon after the creation, it is difficult to see how the aboriginal inhabitants could have reached their destination by any other means. Spain is full of beautiful legends; it is almost as picturesque in literature as in its land and people.