The Bullfight

The simplest commentators on the Portuguese bullfight note immediately that it differs from the Spanish type by virtue of the fact that in the Portuguese version the bull is not killed in the ring.

This, though perhaps the most dramatic (or anti‑dramatic) difference, is really only a very small part of the total picture.

After all, the "killing part", for all its drama and power, lasts less than three minutes, unless the bullfighter is very bad at it. If the Portuguese had doge no more than to eliminate this part of the spectacle, the fight would simply be a bit shorter, and there would be no argument, as there is, as to which is the superior form of the art.

The truth is that the bullfight as it is done in the western extreme of the Iberian Peninsula, is totally different, from beginning to end. It concentrates on agility, horsemanship and a kind of dangerous playfulness, while the Spanish emphasizes courage, and there is no playfulness involved, or when there is, the bullfighter will never reach the top ranks.

The interesting thing is that the bullfights in the two countries contain the same elements, but differences in the national characters of the two peoples gave a different historical development to the bullfight.

In every country where bullfighting is done, the first thing that happens is the opening parade. While in Spanish bullfighting this is a piece of pomp lasting about two or three minutes, in Portugal the parade becomes an act in itself, an important part of the spectacle, called the "courtesias"

Dressed in elaborate costumes, the various players emerge from the gate which stands in the sun of the late afternoon (bullfights begin at 5.30, generally speaking), and march, or ride, as the case may be, toward the shaded side of the grandstand, where are the most expensive seats and consequently, the most important people.

The characters in the parade include those who will fight the bull on foot with capes (toreros), those who will play the animal on horseback (rejoneadores or cavaleiros), the various attendants and handlers, and the teams of "forcados", who will actually tackle the bull and bring him to a halt with their bare hands. If the bullfight is "Antiga Portuguesa" the cavalerios will arrive in golden coaches.

In the Spanish bullfight, as is well known, the star of the show, to the total diminishment of all the other players, is the matador, the man who will fight on foot and kill the bull. In the Portuguese, it is the cavaleiro who commands all the attention. Likewise, in the parade, dressed in a costume imported from France in the 17th century, he is the focus of attention. As the rest stand patiently, he prances his fine animal forward, backward, to the sides and marking time, to the great applause of the audience.

Doffing their plumed black hats, and with the tails of their waistcoats flying, the three horsemen, who will each play two bulls, prance in a perfectly orchestrated demonstration of equestrian coordination, until every lied of the bullring except the sun side, has had a chance to appreciate their skills and horsemanship at Glose range.

The horses themselves, a cross of Arab and English thoroughbred, are animals of great beauty, quite unlike the horses in the Spanish bullfight, who are there primarily to be gored by the bull, and consequently, are beat‑up old nags that can barely carry their mounts on a hot afternoon.

The Portuguese horses must never be touched by the hora of the buli. At least, that is the intention, though less easy in the execution. They must be excellently trained for three years at great cost. You can see in many Portuguese towns such as Montijo or Vila Franca de Xira the animals being trained through long days to go forward, backward and to the sides with equal agility, and all immediately at the feel of the riders' sharp spurs.

The riders of these animals, the stars of the Portuguese bullfight, are not, as in the Spanish, drawn from the poorer classes of the nation. In this age, this takes a bit of the drama out that comes from the sight of a man who has nothing to those risking his life against the possibility of adulation and riches. However, one soon learns in Portugal to appreciate the prospect of the moneyed classes deporting themselves in fine style, not taking any really great risks, of course (the bulls' horns are well padded with leather, "embolado", and the riders never dismount in the dangerous animals' presence), but achieving a beauty and grace that makes one forgive them their dandyism and the opulence that is necessary to own and trail a stable of these fine horses.

The forcados, on the other hand, who will be discussed more fully later, do often come from the peasantry or city workers, and demonstrate a more raw courage without elegance or fine skill.

After the parade, the participant return to their places behind the protective wall, the ring is clear, the heavy Bates of the bull pen are opened, and the wild bull charges out into the sun.

These animals, like the Spanish bulls, are a very special type of animal. The bull is, you might say, the co‑star of the spectacle. In Spain he is actually the star of the tragedy, but since in Portugal he is not killed, he can only be considered one of the stars in what is actually a comedy, at times even farcical. He is still, however, well worth knowing something about.

He will usually weigh in at about a half ton. That is a half ton of solid muscle, bred for bravery, size, musculature and stamina. His heaviest muscle is that massive one running from his horns halfway down his back, the "morillo", with which he can easily those a horse into the air, if he should catch in properly, and the rider with it. The bulls are raised in Ribatejo and Alentejo, where they roam freely.

The bull in Portugal and in Spain has a symbolic valence even beyond his actual power. In the collective European psyche since the days of the bull‑dancers of Crete and the Greek myth of the human‑devouring minotaur, half‑bull, halfman, the bull has exemplified danger, power, evil and beauty. Cave paintings in northern Iberia indicate the early presence of a religious or aesthetic cult built around the animal, and primitive sculptures of bulls are to be found in various locations throughout the peninsula. But perhaps the final symbolic meaning of the animal is found in its association with the Moors, with whom the Iberians, both Portuguese and Spanish, contended for so many centuries. This is due both to the animal's dark color and to the fact that it was a favorite stratagem of the Moors to stampede a herd of wild bulls with firebrands tied to their tails and make their attack behind this stampede.

Getting back to the animals actual strength, they have been pitted against tigers, lions and many other animals in arranged fights in Portuguese court entertainments, and seldom emerge the loser. Their courage is such that they will, like the rhinoceros, charge trucks and even locomotives.

The quality of the fight, of course, depends largely on the quality of the bull. If he comes out charging fiercely, and running all about the ring at the sight of a waved cape, that is a good sign.

It means he has "casta". The horseman should then have little difficulty in getting hem to charge, and at the end, the forcados should be agile to do their brutal work at one attempt. It he is a cautious ("manso") animal, he will not care to charge the horse after having felt the banderilles, and the act of the forcados can be quite frustrathig if the bull refuses to charge.

The first thing that happens to the bull is his playing by the bullfighters on foot. These are the characters who in Spain are the Bine qua non of the fight. In Portugal their part is rarely of interest, and generally a bit ludicrous. If they have any real skill with the cape, or any of the virtues of the bullfighter, they will‑ go to Spain, where the drama is built around their part. Here they serve to direct the bull into the proper positions, and here, at the beginning of the fight, to run hem a bit so that the fighter on horseback can study the bull's movements, whether he leads with the right or left horn, where his favorite territory will be, how fast his . charge is, etc., etc.

There are a myriad things to know if the horse is to be properly protected but the fight remain exciting.

The fighters on foot generally will run from the fearsome bull and jump over the protective wall at the first sign of danger. This is not to their discredit, as the bull is fresh and very dangerous, even with padded horns, and it is not their job to make a real fight of the matter. Still there are occasions when a spark of bravery shows . . . perhaps the torero has a geri in the stands he wishes to impress, or perhaps he is thinking to one day go to Spain. When this happens, there is a moment of real beauty that only a weaponless man facing a bull on foot can produce.

At this point the toreros retire from the ring, keeping the bull distracted with capes while the rider comes proudly out, his steed prancing proudly and pompously. It is time for the humiliation of the bull.

The cavaleiros part consists essentially in sticking a series (generally six) of banderilles, or "Farpas", into the neck muscle of the bull. We do not, of course, know (or care, if we are wise) how much pain this causes the bull, who generally bleeds and tosses his head in much the same manner as we would behave after an insect bite.

The banderilles are much like arrows, gaily decorated. The first are long, and are placed quite easily from horseback, without the rider having to bend much. The ends break off about a foot and a half up the shaft, so that the bull does not end by dragging around a lot of excess lumber.

The latter three banderilles are a greater test of the horseman's skill, as they are quite short, and the man will have to bend at an angle, getting quite Glose to the bull's horn in order to thrust them in.

The proper method of placement is three on one seed of the hump and three on the other. This is derived from the Spanish style, in which a man on foot places the banderilles two at a time, one on either side of the hump. Proper placement has the purpose of keeping the bull's charge straight, to make the work of the forcados easier. Since the captain of the forcado team will have to actually jump between the horns, a badly placed banderille that caused the bull to hook might result in a horn in the belly.

The proper procedure for placement of the banderilles that is, the most aesthetic ‑ is for the horseman to allow the bull to get into its most favored spot, to provoke it to charge the horse, to ride the horse toward the bull at the same time the bull is charging, and at the last moment, to cross the horse in front of the bull, sinking in the banderille and slipping off quickly, usually to the right side of the bull.

This, when properly done, looks deceptively easy. But to provoke a bull out of his favorite spot is often quite difficult. Therefore, the horseman must in some way convinced the bull that there is some chance of goring, an idea which becomes progressively further from the bull's mind each time he misses and feels the metal in his neck.

The best horsemen accomplish this fooling of the bull by interspersing with the placement of the banderilles another tactic, Chis being a Glose chase in which the horseman leads the bull around in a running circle, the horns never more than a foot from the flanks of the horse. This convinces the bull that with just a bit more effort, he could make it.

The second difficulty the horseman overcomes is the fear of his horse. Anyone who rides horses will know that courage is not one of the virtues of the animal, which shies even from a pile of rubble at the side of the road. Imagine, then, the control necessary to get this nervous animal to ride toward a charging, half‑ton hulk of bull. Naturally, use of the spurs is necessary, and even the best of the horsemen leave unaesthetic patches of blood on the sides of their mounts from repeated spurring.

The final act of the Portuguese bullfight is that of the forcados, something very exciting and ancient.

Forcados are teams of eight unpaid men who demonstrate their extraordinary courage by allowing the angered bull to charge straight at them, as they stand in a line, and then overwhelming the animal simply by force of numbers. It is called "pega de cara".

The men are dressed in a traditional costume, of damask or velvet, with the hats descended from the Phoenician fishermen. These are the long knit ones also worn by the famous Nazaré fishermen.

The leader stands a good distance in front of the others and closer to the bull. He provokes a charge and then actually jumps between the horns, hanging on tight to the animal's neck as the bull tosses and tosses in frustration, and the leader is thrown repeatedly into the air. Soon, however, the second man, and then all the others grab onto the animal, and he is stopped in his tracks. The last maul grabs the bull's tail, and then all the other members of the team break loose, leaving the frustrated animal to an impossible attempt to reach the maul who is dragging around on the end of his tail.

Finally, a small herd of steers is herded into the arena. The bull usually joins them and it is possible to herd all the animals offstage.

Those who side with the Spanish method object that all this deprives the bull of dignity, and that the treat of death is necessary for a true cathartic reaction. The Portuguese, of course, counter with the opinion that blood‑lust is engendered by killing the animal onstage, and that to risk a man's life for sport is, in some way, immoral.

It is for certain that those who are repelled by the blood and danger of the Spanish version should not be afraid to see a Portuguese bullfight, which is so much more playful, so much more pleasant and comfortable to watch.

Buying a ticket to a bullfight can be a bit complicated. You have many choices. The cheapest seats are those in the back rows of the sun side, where your view will be disturbed by having to look into the setting sun. It can also be hot on this side.

You may take as a slightly more expensive choice the seats to the sides of the ring, which are sunny for the first part of the show, but later fall into the shade. Then, of course, you may choose the most expensive seats on the shade side, where you will also have the parade dance performed in your direction.

Seats become more expensive as they get closer to the ring, but you may anyway prefer to sit further back, where you won't see the blood of the bull so clearly, and you'll get a more general view of the action.

Hotels in Lisbon sell excursion tickets to the fights in Montijo and Estoril, which may include a meal at a Fado establishment, if you desire. For Montijo, which is far from Lisbon, you must take an excursion, as the taxis are very expensive for such a long distance. The Fado place, however, is likely to be the most touristic type, not very authentic. You can get to Estoril bull ring by taking the train and then a cab from the station, but it is best to buy tickets well in advance, as this is a popular tourist center and the seats are often sold out. Then there is the bull ring in Lisbon, the Campo Pequeno, for which you need no special arrangements.