Miga Fare 



liking to lay hold of me while I showed fight, — I heard 

 another burst of barking a little way off, and perceived a 

 second dog of the same dimensions, and apparently of the 

 same political opinions. I now thought I was in for it, and 

 began to wonder how it would feel to be worried by these 

 two wolf-dogs ; and remembered the death of a badger 

 under similar circumstances, at which, I am sorry to say, I 

 was once present. But when things are at their worst, the 

 remedy often arises in the midst ; and I perceived that the 

 other dog was chained in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 some clothes, and implements, and victuals belonging to 

 the labourers, who had left them to attend mass. It imme- 

 diately occurred to me that this was the object which the 

 loose dog wished to deter me from approaching. I there- 

 fore jumped over a little stream and made a slight detour to 

 the left, conceiving that a compromise under the circum- 

 stances was not dishonourable ; for, as Sancho says again, 

 " Retirarse no es huir, ni el esperar cordura, quando el 

 peligro sobrepuja a la esperanza." ^ 



On my return we breakfasted. Eggs fried in oil — Miga 

 (bread-crumbs steeped in water and sprinkled with salt, 

 with hot oil poured over it, in which a little bit of garlic has 

 been boiled). This is eaten with chocolate, and is not bad. 



The English have a strange unfounded prejudice against 

 oil, and in favour of butter, which is as near as possible the 

 same thing, only that oil is a clean, pure, vegetable fat, 

 which keeps better, and is infinitely easier to have good 

 than butter ; while butter is the result of a greasy animal 

 secretion, milked out of unpleasant udders by a dirty-fisted 

 wench. Butter is not good after three days' keeping ; and 

 accordingly, is much oftener eaten bad than good. Never- 



' " To retreat is not to fly, nor to wait wisdom, when the peril 

 is greater than the prize." — Don Quixote. 



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