SHOOTING IN SPAIN. 193 



and slept by day. Many persons in the city spent the greater 

 part of the day near the river, where the bathing is delightful 

 at high tide j others remained shut up in their rooms on the 

 ground-floor, with the blinds closed, scarcely any light ad- 

 mitted, and where they could adopt at their ease the costume 

 of our first parents in Paradise. Some more hardy strolled 

 beneath the columns of the Patio, which is a large square 

 court, surrounded by an open gallery, and paved with marble 

 and mosaic. A beautifully sculptured fountain in the centre 

 is continually playing, adding freshness to the atmosphere, 

 and extracting odour from the shrubs and flowers that are 

 placed in all parts of the area. During the heat of the day, 

 the Patio is covered by an immense cloth, which is raised 

 and extended by pulleys, and at sunset this covering is 

 removed in order to receive the air; lamps are lighted 

 between the columns, and the Patio becomes the evening 

 salon de reception. Nothing can be more convenient, more 

 elegant, more delightful. 



As the patios are only separated from the streets by thin 

 but very minute gratings, it is very amusing, during a noc- 

 turnal promenade through the city, to enjoy a sight which 

 continually presents itself. The light and graceful Moorish 

 pillars, the sparkling lamps, the fountain throwing up its 

 spiral streams amidst shrubs and flowers, and with its soft 

 murmurs almost seeming to mix in the conversation going 

 on around elegant women, in the thinnest and most trans- 

 parent costumes, reclining beneath orange and myrtle trees 

 all this forms a magical spectacle, or at least did at the time 

 I am speaking of, almost impossible to describe, and quite 

 worthy of some of the best scenes in the Arabian Nights' 

 Entertainment. 



Lightly clad, just sufficiently to cover our persons, all we 

 carried with us was a powder-horn and shot-belt, slung over 

 our shoulders, and a leathern belt, with a number of twine- 



o 



