gates of the church, and every one appears in his beft apparel. It itrikes one, and the crowd dilappears; the porters range themfelves near the houses, to fleep the fiefta, or cat their dinners; all the fhops are fhut: at the corners of the streets the huckfiers cover their falls, and ftretch themfelves befide them on the pavement; the place is cleared, the most noify streets are quite deferted, and a folitary paflenger is rarely feen. But no fooner do the bells ring for velpers than all is life again; and at four the place is crowded anew. At this time ladies of eafy accefs iffue forth from their retreats, fpreading on all fides; and no modeft wonu dares be feen abroad without her cortejo or duenna, and frequently both. The latter was formerly a fevere gover. nefs or guardian of the wife, paid by the hufband, and frequently chofen from among his relations, but now a mere lady's maid. The women I was fpeaking of are free from this flavery. Their light and bold walk; their fhort and flattering petticoats, of which the long and tranparent fringe expofes to view at every step a delicate and beautiful leg; thofe enticing veils, which rather difplay than conceal their charins: their large nofegays, and the coquetifh play of their fans, characterize thefe dangerous fyrens. A word or a look,, however curfory, is fufficient to produce an allignation. The first-rate demireps, who fill keep up external appearances, generally take with them a little girl, eight or ten years old, who ferves as their duenna; and, proud of their charms, they wait till due homage is paid them. Thofe of the fecond clafs, who go alone, ufe lefs referve, fimile with grace, and employ their most feducing allurements. At this time come the venders of cool water (aguadores), crying, Agua frefca, agua frefquita! quien beve? quien quiere? Aora viene de la fuente?" Cool water, nice cool water: who drinks, who wants any water juft fresh from the fountain?" Thefe men carry on their fhoulders a large flone pitcher, fattened on with leather thongs, and keep goblets in tin vellels to drink out of; it is fold at a farthing the glafs. Alfo orange girls (naranjeras) crying "Naranjas,naranjas,dos por tres quartos! per tres quartos dos!" Oranges, oranges, two for three farthings, for three farthings two!!! The flower-girls (ruferas), "Tomé vm, tome vm! fe

66

"

norito, fenorita! tres por un quarto ; que hermofas! que ricas! el mangjo un quarto! que hermofas yo las teugo." "Take fome, take fome, dear fir! dear madain! three for a farthing! how beautiful! how rich! a farthing a handful! how beautiful they are!" The chaife-drivers (caleferos), "Un calefin, fenor? quantos afhentos? tome v'm, que calefin, y que caballo yo tengo! vanios fenor! una buelta al canal o adonde v ́m quiera ?” “A chaise, fir; how many feats? come, fir; what a chaife and what a horfe are mine! Come, fir, a turn to the canal, or wherever you please." The news-venders : Gazeta nova ! gazeta nova! No tenga na que media dozena. Quien quiere la ultima gazeta? Tomé v m la ultima que tengo." The new gazette! the new gazette! I have only half a dozen left; who will have the laft gazette? Take it, fir, the last I have." And laftly, the beggars: "Senor, una limofina! por Maria fantiffima! una limofina a efte pobrecito que no puede ganar! una liniofina por los dolores de Maria fantiffima!" "Sir, your charity, for the love of the holy virgin; your charity to a poor man that cannot work. Your charity, by the pains of the holy virgin!" Then by degrees the various equipages go to the theatres or to the Prado, and on all fides company in chariots, on mules, and in borricos. At length it is twilight, the bells ring for the Angelus, the lamps are lighted before the madonas and in the houses, while the wine and lemonade fellers light up their fhops, and every where are feen little tables with French rolls and paper lanterns. "Que ricos! que tiernecitos, que blanditos." How rich," how fresh, how foft! The noife of the paflengers, the rumble of carriages, increafes every moment, and the whole fquare is full of people. Here guitars and voleros are heard, there a balladfinger, finging the laft new ballad and ftories of men hanged; then a vigorous copper-coloured miffionary preaching to a penitent populace, while his audience are making affignations A third clafs of courtezans are now in full difplay, all having now left their hovels and garrets, and haying fortified their courage in fome tipling houfe (botelle ria), they advance in high fpirits into the fquare. Ah hijo de mi alma!" exclaim they, throwing their arms round the neck of the first man they meet, and covering his mouth with

kiffes.

for a bed (fala con alcova), at 13 or 14 reals a day, breakfaft and fupper included. This plan cannot be 100 frongly recommended to foreigners, who wish to become familiar with the language of the country, or the manners and customs of the middling clafs of inhabitants; befides procuring at the fame time numerous other focial advantages. The bare rent fcarcely

amounts to 5 reals a day *.

"If the men are diftinguished by their peculiar character, the Spanish women are diftinguifhed for the warmth of their conftitutions. A fanatical enthufiafm for the religious fyftem of their country, pride that would beud every thing beneath its yoke, a fingularity that knows no law but its own will, a paffion for revenge, in oppofition to which nothing is held facred, and an unbridled love of pleafure, are all compenfated in them by fidelity and attachment that nothing can shake, by Strength of mind and heroifin carried to the utmoft height. All their fenfa tions are violent, but they have a character of energy, that would carry you away in spite of your better judgement and all your philofophy. The phyfiognomy of a Spanish woman bears the ftamp of fenfibility. Her flender form, her majestic fep, her fonorous voice, her black and brilliant eye, the vivacity of her gefticulation, in a word, the whole action of her perfon, fhews the temperature of her foul. Her premature charms are too foon difplayed, and fade with equal rapidity. The climate, the heating alimenis they ufe, excefs in their amufements, every thing contributes to produce this effect. At 40 a Spanish woman feems twice as old, and her whole exterior fhews exhaustion and premature old age. Almost all have a down on their upper lip; a peculiarity which fhews the warmth of their couftitutions, but which is fo difagreeable that they have recourfe to the velleras, or women whole bufinefs it is to pluck out the hair. Almoft all have fpoiled their teeth by an im

"A real vellon is almost 28. fter

ling; a real of plate or filver is about 4d-4 a pefetta is 4 reals vellon (about 94), hut is generally confidered as equal to a French livre: 8 reals of plate make a nominal dollar, or dollar of exchange (called a piece of eight); and 5 pefettas make a hard dollar, or dollar of 20 reals vellon: a quarto is th, and an ochavo 4th, of a real of vellon." TRANSLATOR.

moderate ufe of dulces, or sweetmeats." (p. 167.)

M. F goes on to obferve, that a rapturous love of faints awakens a sense of her fexuality, and thus a voluptuous devotion becomes, from 16 years of age, the most important occupation of her life. Hence it is by no means rare to fee a beautiful woman quit the arms of love to kneel before a Madonna, and, being reconciled by this act of devotion, again haften to give herself up to pleafure. They are, however, very far from being delicate in objects of this kind (p. 109.) "They must not be chofen, but muft chufe: the more indifferent the men appear, the more ardour the women thew; the more he fhuus her, the more the purfues him. They are, however, faithful and confiant. The energy of their character preferves them from levity, and their pride from bafenefs." (p. 170.) "The lover muft in all things be the paffive agent of a woman, whofe ardent imagination often commands what is impollible with the most impatient egotifm." (p. 171.) Marriage becomes a fource of perpetual hoftilities, which nourish a difunion between the hufband and wife, and are the principal caufe of the continuance of the cuttom of cortejos, or lovers of married women, rarely found among the middle claties, and fearce ever among the lower orders. They frequently ferve only for etiquette, but fill more frequently they enjoy all the privacies of a hufbaud. This fpecies of intimacy, however, is fubject to fuch rigorous laws, that the two parties in fome meafure infulate them felves from all other individuals of their fex, and confider the leaft caufe of fufpicion as unpar donable. But if, on the one hand, a lady watches her cortejo with the mott extreme jealoufy on the other hand, he is moft rigid in her attentions to him; for all thofe who are in this fituation never give any other anfwer to the advances of frangers, who are either indifcreet, or ignorant of the culioms of the country, than contemptus filence tertullas, every cortejo is placed befide or haughty difdain. Thus, all the his female friend; nor can it be denied that this fervile reftraint contributes

greatly to give a coldnefs and a fameFemale nefs to fociety." (p. 172.) education confifts in a knowledge of a fyftem of dogmas and ceremonies, and cultivated by a few external accom‐ plishments,

plishments, fuch as dancing, embroidery, and the guitar. Marriage is a ftate of idleness and pleafure. All the cares of the house and of marketing fall on the hufband. It is very rare in the first and middling claffes to fee a mother nurse her own children; and, when nurfes are advertised for, it is frequently inferted, that the child is to be taken away." (p. 174.) Women in Spain have run from the moft abject flavery to the oppofite extreme. Thefe ill-afforted marriages fometimes produce the most horrid acts of revenge. An inliance of this is related, and the comments of the people on the execution by ftrangling, which, having fixed the blood in the guilty faces, they af cribed it to the violence the devil had done to their fouls. The majority pitied their unhappy fate. This probably induced a curate fome days after to fay in his fermon, that he knew for certain that Madrid contained thoufands of women, one half of whom had been guilty of fimilar crimes, and the other meditated the perpetration of them." I am willing to hope that the pious paftor in his zeal fomewhat exaggerated; yet it is certain that the Spanish women are too often led, by the manners of the country, to rid themfelves of their husbands by poifon, or any other method." (p. 180.)

The drefs of the Spanish women confifts of the mantilla, or veil, and the bafquina, or petticoat, which are worn by girls from their earliest infancy, who thus acquire a habit of wearing the veil gracefully. Women of the firft clafs have almoft renounced the national for the French drefs. Fafhion has fhortened the mantillas, and black gowns with long bodies are worn, uniting the gown and bafquina: alfo bafquinas of tranfparent net-work, under which are light petticoats that fhew the fhape. In winter, peliffes, and the veil thrown back; but old people find great fault with thefe innovations, and give those who adopt them the nickname of Pierracas y Madamitus. (p. 182.) "I have freqntly heard the Spanish women of derent provinces diftinguifhed thus: the Bifcayan are laborious; the Catalonian excellent housewives; the Cafullian prudes; the Andalufian ardent; the Valencian clean; and thofe of my province beautiful, the most beautiful." (p. 184.)

Old Caftile is made up of uniform
GENT. MAG. January, 1803.

plains, few houfes, ftony and almost barren fields, with a few vineyards, numerous flocks of fheep, few horned cattle, no meadows, forefts, gardens, or country-houses, and in general a dreary and monotonous fcene. Houfes of mind half ruined, the roofs, which let in the light, loaded with fiones in order to refift the wind, but the churches, chapels, and monafteries, maffive and magnificent; the inhabitants of the huts filthy, ignorant of mechanic arts, and no one thews either curiofity or tafte in domeftic induttry ; but much pride and gravity, probity, want of cultivation, and great natural fhrewdnefs, under a dark, favage, and ill look. Pride and generofity are the bafis of the general Spanish character, with profound refpect for the Catholic ceremonies and religion, undeviating attachment to every thing that culioni has established, and a fixed aversion to every thing foreign and all innovation. The inhabitants of the Southern provinces are more civilized, and the higher claffes have received foreign cultivation, but the general character remains the fame. Social life does not here offer thofe interefting refources which we find in France, England, and Germany. Nature is here wild, and unembellifhed by education; the advantages of cultivated and extended information are not yet fpread abroad, and the public mind is ftill in darkness, and limited to mere fenfual enjoyments. The Government, having perceived that it is their intereft to command a more informed people, begin to fap the foundation of ecclefiaftical power, and forward the cultivation of the mind. The Spanish nation have begun to unfold their powers in filence, and will one day excite the attention and astonishment of Europe. Literature and the book trade are, as it were, two fifters that mutually aid and encourage each other; but the book trade is the younger fifter. The few books that have appeared are printed at the king's expence, or that of the authors themfelves; and thefe fpeculations have always been attended with lofs. But the book trade has improved fince the inAuence of the clergy has diminished, the mafs of general knowledge increafed, and literature gained confiftency and firength. But the bookfellers yet know little of any other books than thofe in their hops, and for others

they