outer garment being made of sheep-skins or coarse
woollen cloth which lasts out a man's life. Coarse
bread is, in common seasons, about 1d. a lb., fine bread
from 1d. to 2d., bacon from 44d. to 7d. a lb., salt
fish from 23d. to 34d., common wine from 1d. to 3d. a
bottle. Spanish bread is not fermented like ours, but is
compact and cake-like; it has, however, a very good
taste, for Spanish wheat is of excellent quality. The
common wine in the central and northern provinces,
where it is the universal beverage, is generally very
poor; but in the south of Spain, whence the fine wines
come, in the districts of Xeres, Rota, Malaga, Alicant,
the country-people hardly drink any;-it is too valu-
able for them. In Catalonia and other provinces near
the Mediterranean sea a family of four persons will dine
upon half a pound of salt fish, bread, and oil, and sup
on a lettuce. The Catalonians; however, are very fond
of wine and spirits, but one seldom sees a Spaniard
intoxicated, except among the lowest populace of the
cities. Smoking is universal, but on a very economical
plan; they carry a tobacco stick in their pocket, out of
which they cut a piece, crumble it in the palm of their
hand, wrap it up in paper, and the cigar is thus made.
In the wide plains of Castile, and Leon the great

spective provinces. Their good qualities are obscured by prejudices; their sternness degenerates at times into ferocity, as their piety does into superstition. Yet, in the common intercourse of life, in quiet times, they appear warm-hearted, good-tempered, and civil. Although uninformed; they are very far from dull; and though poor, they are not unhappy. "Nothing," says the late M. Martignac, who accompanied the French army in 1823, in a high and important capacity, nothing in other countries resembles the Spanish peasant-the Spanish labourer. Every where else the peasant is a man of toil and of want, daily and entirely absorbed by the necessity of providing subsistence for himself and family. In Spain, the journeyman, the labourer, is never entirely engrossed by a similar care. His wants have been so reduced by frugal habits, that the fear of destitution seldom disturbs his repose or affects his humour. Strangers who visit Spain, and pay attention to the manners and the language of the humbler classes, are struck with the simple, easy, and often elevated talk of the country-people. Their conversation is never trivial or vulgar, they reason justly, and often express generous sentiments with a natural nobleness. Ábove all, they have a feeling of pride, which makes them disdain proffered assistance or grati-corn country of Spain, and in the other central provinces, fication for a voluntary service. At Buytrago, I went very few farm-houses are to be seen; the inhabitants are to visit the fine estate of the Duke of Infantado, and its crowded together in villages, and the houses made of flock of Merino sheep. The steward gave me a farm- bricks baked in the sun look dilapidated and comfortless. servant to show me about. The latter fulfilled his charge It is only in the north, or in some of the maritime diswith intelligence and politeness. At the moment of de-tricts of the south, that one sees anything like the farmparture, I felt somewhat embarrassed how to show my houses and cottages of other countries. The Castilians gratitude, without wounding his national pride. I have of old a singular aversion against trees, as being glanced at my guide's attire,-it showed but little of com- the means of attracting and sheltering birds who would fort; his children, whom we had met, were in tatters. peck the corn. This nakedness of the great table-land I resolved to offer him my mite; and, on arriving at the of Spain struck particularly an intelligent American, who gate, I attempted to slip, as quietly as I could, a gold has written a recent and very interesting tour of that piece into his hand. He was in the attitude of bowing country. "After having long since stripped the country very low, while showing us out; but, at the touch of of its trees, the Castilian, instead of creating nurseries for the money, he raised himself proudly up, and told me, their restoration, has such an abhorrence for everything with an accent of repressed anger, Sir, we stand in no of the kind that he will even prevent the establishment need of any one's assistance; our master is a great lord of them along the high roads, by wounding those which who does not let his people want for anything. A the government has been at the expense of planting similar feeling makes the Spanish peasant impatient of there. In consequence of their proscription in the inteadvice, and averse to any novelty that wounds his feel-rior of Spain, it has been remarked that the soil, scorched ings, his habits, or his faith. Such is the Castilian by a powerful sun, with no trees to moderate its force or peasant; such also the Aragonese, with a greater admix- attract humidity, has gradually lost its streams and ture of obstinacy; such the Catalonian, with greater fountains, of which nothing now remains but empty activity, and also a deadlier spirit of revenge. In the ravines, to mark the forgotten source of former fertility." southern provinces there are greater remains of bar- The mountains of New Castile supply the inhabitants barism and ferocity, owing, perhaps, to the more pro- of the plains with charcoal for fuel. Nothing is more tracted struggle with the Moors, and also to their strikingly dreary than the country round Madrid, not a African neighbourhood." grove nor an orchard nor country seat to be seen. The It would be indeed absurd to attempt to reduce the fields in Castile are not enclosed; the corn is thrashed whole population, of so vast a country as Spain to a and left on the ground, till the dealers and speculators in fixed standard. There are considerable shades of differ-corn, to whom, in most cases, the harvest is mortgaged ence between the native of the northern provinces, bor- beforehand, come to fetch it away. The farmers are dering on the Atlantic Ocean, and the inhabitant of the without capital, and therefore are incapable of making sunny coast of the Mediterranean; and also between improvements on their lands. The markets are distant, these two and the dweller in the great central table-land and although corn is often double the price in Gallicia, of Castile, Leon, and Estremadura. These may be con- Asturias, and other maritime provinces, to what it is in sidered as the three grand divisions of Spain. the central ones, yet the expense of carriage on mules backs, or in carts drawn by oxen, absorbs the whole profit. Nearly one half of the produce goes in the shape of taxes and tithes, and out of the other half the tenant must pay his rent and support himself.

Labourers' wages are lower in the north than in Castile and in the other central provinces, where the population is thinner and villages at a greater distance from each other. Farm labourers receive from 1s. to 1s. 5d. per day, masons and carpenters from Is. 2d. to 18. 10d. Labouring servants, boarded by their masters, receive from 6d. to 10d. The men do not work very hard. The working days are about 273 in the year, the rest being Sundays and other holidays. The food of the labouring classes consists of bread, bacon, Spanish peas or beans, oil, garlic, greens, and wine. They seldom eat fresh meat; salt fish is a relish on meagre days. The men lay out but little upon clothes, their

We have said that there is considerable difference between the various provinces of Spain with regard to agriculture. In Valencia, Murcia, and Grenada the system of irrigation prevails. There the country, sloping between the mountains and the sea, is formed either by nature or art into luxuriant platforms, rising above each other like the grades of an amphitheatre. The streams descending from the mountains are turned into nume rous channels to irrigate the whole, "The right to the

use of every stream is of course nicely defined. When them, and his first care on arriving at the inn is to see. the season arrives, those who enjoy water privileges sedu- them comfortably provided for, and then, and not till lously prepare their fields, open their sluices, fill the then, he thinks of himself. He is sutler or travelling ditches, and inundate the whole, even to vineyards and merchant, carries parcels, and executes commissions for olive orchards. In consequence of this system, produc- the people on his road. The master muleteer, or owner tions are multiplied to a wonderful extent, and the earth of a number of mules, sends his servants on various continues prolific throughout the year. The mulberry-journeys, pays their expenses on the road, besides their trees are thrice stripped of their leaves, and the meadows wages. On more important and profitable expeditions of clover and lucerne are mown eight or even ten times; citrons are often gathered of several pounds weight, and bunches of grapes of fourteen pounds; wheat sown in November yields thirty for one in June; barley in Octo- | ber gives twenty in May; rice in April yields forty in October, and Indian corn planted as a second crop gives one hundred fold*."

In the north, the provinces of Navarre and Biscay are the best cultivated; the inhabitants are industrious and comfortable. They enjoy their own local administration, and vote the taxes among themselves. They compound with the King's treasury, and for a certain sum are free from a number of petty taxes to which the rest of Spain is subject. They have also manufactures, especially of iron, having coal-mines in their country. The Basque provinces form a sort of separate kingdom, having their separate laws and language.

he sets forth himself. During the war in the Peninsula,
the muleteers were much employed by the English com
missariat, to carry provisions for the army, and they were
paid handsomely. Accordingly, some of them were
known to have come with their mules from the heart of
Castile, then in possession of the French, to the frontiers
of Portugal, where the English cantonments were
evading the French posts and scouring parties. Often
in the dead of night has the English bivouac been
cheered by the distant chaunt of the Spanish muleteer
singing national ballads "of the good land of Valencia
the Eden of Spain," or boasting of the "impregnable
city of Zaragoza which the French shall never conquer,"
and of its patroness "our Lady del Pilar,”—the jingling
of the mules' bells echoing to each cadence.

How carols now the lusty muleteer!
Of love, romance, devotion is his lay,
As whilome he was wont the leagues to cheer
His quick bells wildly jingling by the way?
No; as he speeds, he chaunts: Viva el Rey!
CHILDE HAROLD.

Adversity. About half a league from Palos, on a solitary

The mountaineers of Gallicia, at the western extremity of Europe, thrown out as it were into the stormy Atlantic, which washes their rugged country on two sides, are poor, hardy, and patient. The soil being too barren to afford maintenance to a numerous population, the Gallegos emigrate by thousands, and resort to the large cities, especially to Madrid and Lisbon, where they per-height overlooking the sea-coast, and surrounded by a forest form the offices of porters and water-carriers. They have a general reputation for honesty, very different from the natives of the sunny land of Valencia, who have a bad name in Spain. The Asturians share the same condition and pursuits as their neighbours of Gallicia, with something of a more adventurous character.

The mesta is a source of tribulation to many a Spanish farmer. It is a chartered company of proprietors of sheep, who have the right of grazing their flocks over all the pasture lands of Spain, subject to trifling fees. The number of their sheep amounts to about five millions, and they employ about fifty thousand persons, in the capacities of agents, shepherds, and other servants. They have officers and judges who exercise many oppressious over those who stand in the way of their assumed rights and privileges. The sheep migrate from the plains to the mountains in the summer, and back again before the winter, trespassing over the cultivated lands, driving the other flocks out of their meadows, and causing much mischief. This is one reason why the fields in central Spain are unenclosed. The company of the mesta monopolize the wool trade, the private graziers and sheep proprietors having no chance of competing with such a powerful and wealthy body, who reckons among its members men high in office, noblemen, and dignitaries of the church. This evil has been long complained of by Spanish agriculturists; it is one of the most extraordinary monopolies ever granted in any country.

of pine-trees, there stood, and stands at the present day, an ancient convent of Franciscan friars, dedicated to Santa Maria de Rabida. A stranger travelling on foot, accompanied by a young boy, stopped one day at the gate of the convent, and asked of the porter a little bread and water for his child. While receiving this humble refreshment, the guardian of the convent, Friar Juan Perez de Marchena, happening to pass by, was struck with the appearance of the stranger, and, observing from his air and accent that he was a foreigner, entered into conversation with him. That stranger was Columbus, accompanied by his young son Diego. He was on his way to the neighbouring town of Huelva, to seek a brother-in-law, who had married a sister of his deceased wife.-Washington Irving.

THE ECONOMICAL MICE OF ICELAND. DR. HENDERSON, in his Travels, gives his testimony to the correctness of the popular belief amongst the natives of Iceland, of the remarkable instinct of a species of mouse, the accounts of which have been doubted by some naturalists. He says, "This animal, which is supposed by Olafsen and Povelsen (writers on zoology) to be a variation of the wood, or economical mouse, displays a surprising degree of sagacity, both in conveying home its provisions, and the manner in which it stocks them in the magazine appropriated for that purpose. In a country, says Mr. Pennant, where berries are but thinly dispersed, these little animals are obliged to cross rivers to make their distant forages. In their return with the booty to their magaThe arricros or muleteers form a numerous and rather zines, they are obliged to repass the stream; of which conspicuous part of the Spanish population. Mules are Mr. Olafsen (Olafsen and Povelsen) gives the following preferred in Spain for driving, as being more sure-account:-The party, which consists of from six to ten, footed and hardier of living than horses. Besides which, there are caravans of mules, with loads on their backs, constantly crossing Spain on the various roads, carrying corn, rice, flour, pulse, wine, and oil in skins, as well as goods from the sea-ports to the interior. The muleteer is a primitive being; he wanders all over the vast peninsula; his home is everywhere; light-hearted and jovial, he is also honest, and his punctuality in general may be depended upon. He is very kind to his mules, calls them by their names, talks to them, scolds *One Year in Spain,' by a Young American.

select a flat piece of dried cow-dung, on which they place the berries on a heap in the middle; then, by their united force, bring it to the water's edge, and, after launching it, embark, and place themselves round the heap, with their heads joined over it, and their backs to the water, their tails pendent in the stream, serving the purpose of rudders.' Mr. Hooker, in his "Tour in Iceland,' ridicules the idea of any such process, and says, that every sensible Icelander laughs at the account as fabulous."

Dr. Henderson then goes on to corroborate the state

ments of Olafsen and Pennant: " Having been apprised of the doubts that were entertained on this subject, before setting out on my second excursion I made a point of inquiring of different individuals as to the reality of the account, and I am happy in being able to say, that it is now established as an important fact in natural history, by the testimony of two eye-witnesses of unquestionable veracity, the clergyman of Briámslæk, and Madame Benedictson of Stickesholm, both of whom assured me that they had seen the expedition performed repeatedly. Madame B. in particular recollected having spent a whole afternoon, in her younger days, at the margin of a small lake on which these skilful navigators had embarked, and amused herself and her companions by driving them away from the sides of the lake as they approached them. I was also informed that they make use of dried mushrooms as sacks, in which they convey their provisions to the river, and thence to their homes. Nor is the structure of their nests less remarkable. From the surface of the ground a long passage runs into the earth, similar to that of the Icelandic houses, and terminates in a large and deep hole, intended to receive any water that may find its way through the

THE above is an accurate representation, taken from | when irritated, it puts on a menacing aspect, swelling the drawings of the celebrated naturalist, Seba, of the Guana, one of the largest lizards of the tropics. The appearance of this animal is somewhat alarming; and,

out the great pouch of its throat, erecting the scales on its back, lashing its tail, glaring with its fiery eyes, and making a sort of hissing noise like a serpent. But the

animal is very gentle, though it can bite and scratch; and it may be easily domesticated. The guana is common in several countries of South America, and it was formerly found in considerable numbers in the West-India Islands; but the race has there been nearly destroyed, its flesh being considered a delicious article of food.

This remarkable lizard is easily distinguished from every other species, by the pouch which hangs from the under side of its neck, by the indented crest which reaches from the head to the extremity of the tail, and by the peculiar beauty of its general colours, and the me tallic brilliancy of its scales. Its extreme length, from the muzzle to the end of the tail, is sometimes five or six feet. There is a dried specimen in the Museum of Natural History at Paris, which is four feet long; and there is a smaller specimen in the British Museum. The ground colour of the guana is in general green, mixed with yellow, or various shades of blue; but the colours of the species differ considerably in different individuals, and are probably dependant upon circumstances of age, sex, and climate.

The guana feeds on the flowers and leaves of trees, and on earth-worms and insects. Its jaws are furnished with teeth, but it swallows its food with scarcely any mastication. It runs with astonishing nimbleness along the highest branches of trees; and seldom descends to the earth, sleeping and feeding on the same tree. The female, however, at a particular period of the year, goes to the sea-shore to deposit her eggs in the sand. After feeding the guana is very dull, and is then easily taken. In some places it is hunted by dogs trained to the chace, and in others taken in a noose or trap. It is extremely difficult to kill, except in one way-that of thrusting a sharp instrument up its nostrils. The flesh, as we have of the bread-fruit. Dr. Solander calls it "the most use mentioned, is esteemed a delicacy. Catesby, in his Na-ful vegetable in the world," and urges that no expense tural History of Carolina, says that the guana is made should be spared in its cultivation. The mere idea of an article of traffic in the Bahama Islands, being carried bread, the most valuable food of man, growing sponta from place to place, and kept alive, till required for the neously, was doubtless calculated to excite attentiontables of the rich. Brown, who wrote the Natural His- almost, perhaps, as strongly as the subsequent descriptory of Jamaica, says that he kept a full-grown guana in tion of the poet :his house for two months. It lay quiet on a bed during the day, and ran about at night, when it appeared to feed on small insects floating in the air.

THE BREAD-FRUIT.

[Abridged from 'Timber-Trees and Fruits,' one of the volumes of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge.']

THE earliest account of the bread-fruit is by Captain Dampier, in 1688. "The bread-fruit," says this navigator," grows on a large tree, as big and high as our largest apple-trees; it hath a spreading head, full of branches and dark leaves. The fruit grows on the boughs like apples; it is as big as a penny loaf when wheat is at five shillings the bushel; it is of a round shape, and hath a thick tough rind. When the fruit is ripe, it is yellow and soft, and the taste is sweet and pleasant. The natives of Guam use it for bread. They gather it when full-grown, while it is green and hard; then they bake it in an oven which scorcheth the rind, and maketh it black; but they scrape off the outside black crust, and there remains a tender thin crust; and the inside is soft, tender, and white, like the crumb of a penny loaf. There is neither seed nor stone in the inside, but all of a pure substance, like bread. It must be eaten new, for, if it be kept above twenty-four hours, it grows harsh and choky, but it is very pleasant before it is too stale. This fruit lasts in season eight months in the year, during which the natives eat no other sort of bread kind. I did never see of this fruit any where but here. The natives told us, that there is plenty of this fruit growing on the rest of the Ladrone Islands; and I did never hear of it any where else."

[Bread-Fruit Tree.]

The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields
The unreap'd harvest of unfurrow'd fields,

And bakes its unadulterated loaves
Without a furnace in unpurchased groves,
And flings off famine from its fertile breast,
A priceless market for the gathering guest.-BYRON.