It is the result of 18 months research and fieldwork, and is richly illustrated with photographs of the marks in question. Just recently I had the chance to be briefly interviewed on Andorran TV in French at one of the best sites for apotropaic door marks in Andorra, explaining the potential interpretations of the motifs found there and the rationale behind embarking on their research and archiving. It might be assumed that much of the affectations described were romantic inventions of the author, as it would be in their interest to retain a low visibility.
When he is seen in Pau, [1] he appears in a velveteen jacket, inexpressibles [sic] girt round his waist with a gay crimson sash, a conical felt hat with rakish rosettes, and a loose collar thrown back from his swelling sunburnt neck.
He strides along with a bent knee, and the springy, free, elastic step of the hill-climber; and there are not wanting scandalous rumours that he makes use of the knowledge with which he tracks the izzard or the bear to their haunts, to convey a venture of tobacco bales across the frontiers, by paths and precipices, where even the carbineers [2] of the customs hardly care to follow him.
People see in him a figure which recalls sundry dramatic reminiscences of carriages upset, long carbines and Fra Diavolo; [3] but we have only found him a merry, courteous fellow, always ready with a song or a joke, and with quite as little, or less, of the rogue about him, as his compatriots in the towns.
Another feature we can note here is the characteristic of being unthreatening and even kind to those who either had nothing to steal or were uninvolved in smuggling, and smugglers were often credited with helping lost travellers in some cases acting as guides :.
