128 GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAiaNG. 



change seats with me, at least for a time. The little fellow went 

 to sleep leaning his head and whole body on me. Now, as the 

 road was not over smooth, the diligence sometimes gave a jerk on 

 one side, sometimes on the other, and the child followed its move- 

 ments. Imagine what a pleasant position I w^as in. I would 

 much rather have been on a " grizzly" hunt. Three nights pre- 

 vious I had not slept. However, I consoled myself with the idea 

 that all my pains would be remunerated by a sweet smile from 

 the daughter of " a hundred dons of old renown" when daylight 

 came. I awaited daylight with impatience. At last it came, and 

 I found the senora of my dreams not very ugly, not very old, but 

 very dirty. 



Near seven o'clock the conductor announced to us that we were 

 to breakfast in the village which we were then entering. No 

 sooner had our feet touched the ground than we were surrounded 

 by about thirty beggars. They really besieged us. Eesistance 

 was out of the question. In the first place, it would not look 

 well to attack a lot of old men and women, all blind, lame, or 

 diseased; then they were in greater number than we. I was 

 struck by an idea : putting my hand in my pockets, I pulled out 

 a handful of copper coin and threw it among the crowd. The 

 move was most successful ; there was a general scramble, in which 

 the lame walked and the bhnd saw. While they were still scram- 

 bling for the money, we gained the inn by the road which they 

 had left open to us. Once in the tavern, we were safe, unless we 

 approached the door, when they began making a piteous noise, 

 begging in the most moving language. This invariably happen- 

 ed whenever we approached the door, and we as invariably made 

 a hasty and disorderly retreat to the interior. 



A couple of miles on the other side of Balde Pengas the vine 

 plantations begin again. The soil is either of sand or clay, or a 

 mixture of the two. The wine is fermented in large clay jars 

 from six to eight, or even ten feet high. The wine has a peculiar 

 and disagreeable taste, which makes it almost impossible to drink 

 it after it has once come in contact with the palate. This comes 

 from the hides which the wine is put in. They have no barrels. 

 Every ordinary wine that I have yet drank in Spain has in it 

 cither aguardiente or alcohol ; this renders them unfit for common 

 use, for tlicy naturally are very strong already. 



The fifteen minutes allowed for breakfast over, we huddled in 

 again to our places. The little boy, being tired of sitting on his 



