They are a white race, though often sunburnt and bronzed for generations, and both their children and those who have lived in the cities might pass anywhere as Europeans.
In July and, August the plains of New Castile and Estremadura are sunburnt wastes; the roads are several inches deep with dust; the leaves of the few trees are withered and discoloured; the atmosphere is filled with a fine dust, producing a haze known as calina, which converts the blue of the sky into a dull grey.
The former was probably the older word, and may be traced to 40tvos = " blood-red "; the Canaanite sailors were spoken of as the " red men " on account of their sunburnt skin; then the land from which they came was called after them; and then probably the original connexion between Ioivt and 40tvos was forgotten, and new forms and meanings were invented.
The evergreens largely predominate here as well as in the extreme south, and on the open, sunburnt plains the vegetation takes on a subtropical aspect.
The normal Castilian landscape is an arid and sterile steppe, with scarcely a tree or spring of water; and many even of the villages afford no relief to the eye, for they are built of sunburnt unbaked bricks, which share the dusty brownish-grey tint of the soil.