Santi Ponce 



resolved to sleep. As I stepped along briskly (for I was 

 beginning to feel very hungry towards my usual dinner- 

 hour), the sun gradually descended ; the shadow of the 

 western range widened across the plain, and rose like a 

 deepening flood of darkness, leaving only the church-towers 

 and atalayas ^ illuminated ; and by the time I reached the 

 village, twilight had drawn its rapidly-deepening film over 

 all the broad valley which Batis waters. 



Santi Ponce is a poor-looking, low-hutted hamlet, sprin- 

 kled on some knolly undulations of the plain. Many of 

 the small houses are flat-roofed, and it has rather the look 

 of a desolate little eastern town, than of a European village. 

 I had to go right through it, running the gauntlet of 

 women, children, and dogs in great numbers, to whom I 

 afforded a fertile source of speculation, remark, and rebark. 

 At length I reached the posada^ at the further extremity 

 of the place, not in any street, but facing the open country. 

 There was a large doorway without a door, inside of which 

 the vestibule looked very much like a waggon-shed. Fur- 

 ther in appeared a long narrow room — if room it could be 

 called, the walls being of rough unplastered stone, smoke- 

 blackened, like those of a forge, and the window without 

 glass. 



This receptacle, such as it was, proved to be the kitchen 

 of the establishment, and the family were seated at supper 

 round a table at the further end. A flaring little lamp lit up 

 the swarthy faces of the party, making their dim shadows 

 waver upon the walls. Altogether the scene was more 

 picturesque than comfortable. 



I walked up to the table and saluted them with " Dios 



guard' V"""-, Caballeros" (God keep you, gentlemen), 



and proceeded to make inquiries what there was to be had 



' Moorish watch-towers. 



94 



