118 GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING. 



order of their rank and price, are the Berline, Inierieur, Motonde, 

 and Coujie. In the Berline there are three places, all fronting the 

 horses, having each a window in front, and the two .side places 

 one on the side. After the Berline, which is in the front of the 

 diligence, comes the Interieur. It has six places, three toward 

 the front and three opposite. The four side places have each a 

 window. Like the Berline, the Interieur has two entries, one on 

 each side. Tlie Ilotonde possesses four places, two on each side 

 of the carriage, and parallel to it. Behind each place there is a 

 window, and the entry is from behind. In front, on a level with 

 the top of the diligence, is the driver's seat. Right behind this is 

 the Coupe. It has four places, one for the conductor, and three 

 for passengers. It is covered by a thick covering of leather, of 

 the exact shape of an old American buggy. Behind this was the 

 roof of the diligence, on which the baggage was put ; and, after be- 

 ing firmly lashed on, covered over with a thick covering of leather. 

 Sometimes it happens that all the space under this covering is not 

 taken up by the baggage ; it is then used to stow away passengers 

 who travel as fifth class. The only light, the only air these poor 

 fellows get, steals itself through the little hole behind the con- 

 ductor's seat, which also serves as door. They have not even a 

 bench to sit upon. It is useless to say that this is the cheapest 

 place. The Coupe, in price, comes after the Rotonde. We chose 

 our seats in the Coupd. At the end of oar journey, far from re- 

 penting of our choice, we found that it was a most happy one ; 

 for, while the other passengers were half suffocated from dust and 

 the want of air, we sufi'ered from neither. The only objection of 

 our seats was the difficulty to get out and in : this difficulty was 

 much heightened by a woman who had a child in her lajo, and 

 who occupied the third place in the Coupe. 



At the next station they hitched on thirteen mules, and away 

 we went, full gallop up and down hill, the driver hallooing, shout- 

 ing, yelling, and cracking his whip. His yells would have done 

 honor to an American savage. What, however, most astonished 

 me was the driver's descending and mounting to his seat while 

 the mules were in full gallop. It was at least ten feet above the 

 ground. When his mules would not pay any more attention to 

 the cracks of his whip or to his voice, he would quietly descend, 

 and, after whipping them from the last to the first rank, all the 

 while uttering the most unearthly sounds, he would climb qui- 

 etly up to his scat again, although the whole equipage might 



