ETHNOLOGY OF THE TRESENT DAY. 191 



The Sicilian is hospitable, detests drunkenness, and is generally temperate in 

 eating and drinking. In his character the most opposite properties are found 

 associated together ; for example, good nature and knavery, courage and a 

 cringing disposition, sobriety and a love of pleasure. Patriotism and a thirst 

 for independence are his principal prominent traits. The attire is poor, 

 like the dwellings, with the women often gaudy, and in some districts similar 

 to the Moorish. As little is done for the education of the common people, 

 they are almost without information. 



The Spaniards and Portuguese. 



The Spanish nation are distinguished for many good qualities ; firmness, 

 vivacity of mind, courage, perseverance, temperance, and a sentiment of 

 individual and national honor, combined with piety, are pre-eminently 

 proper to them. The humblest Spaniard does not demean himself, never 

 manifests servility or slavish abjectness ; his glance is firm, his bearing frank 

 and upright ; his greeting, address, and farewell simple ; and he recognises 

 and respects the human being, even in the otherwise despised beggar. If 

 the Spaniards, as a general rule, are less industrious than the Germanic 

 people, they are, of all Romanic or South European people, generally the 

 most industrious. They know nothing of the sweet inaction of the Neapoli- 

 tans ; they are generally active, in the northern provinces particularly indus- 

 trious ; and this holds good of the women also, who are domestic and con- 

 stantly occupied ; idleness, except perhaps in the tertidias (evening parties), 

 being esteemed a disgrace amongst them. A very praiseworthy principle, 

 also, of the Spaniard, is that of having as few necessities as possible, and of 

 regulating them according to his means, without even making himself entirely 

 dependent upon the latter. In this way he secures his independence. If. in 

 addition to the above, we take into consideration his vigorous frame and his 

 good health, which enables him to bear with ease the greatest hardships and 

 all changes of climate and weather, it is not surprising that the Spaniard is 

 as good a soldier as man of business. The Spanish women are as handsome 

 as they are lively ; they have a glowing imagination, and their love is a fresh, 

 deep, inward feeling, with no affectation or coquetry. They are, in general, 

 very faithful and domestic. Society and custom allow no treachery, not even 

 against the mere lover, and their revenge is certain. Love is almost like a 

 sacrament ; dissimulation is foreign to the Spanish disposition, and is never 

 the basis of a love affair. 



People of rank in Spain have almost entirely dropped the national costume ; 

 even the cloak is worn only in winter, or when they follow an adventure 

 in the evening, when the large hat w^ith brim bent downwards is also some- 

 times put on. Officers of the court, magistrates, professors and doctors, 

 and the priests, appear in uniform. Only the lower classes, and these 

 principally country people, have retained the national dress. They weor, 

 in general, dark-colored waistcoasts ; short jackets, often trimmed with 

 fancy colored ribands ; a cloak over them ; and on the head a net of yarn 



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