8 



CHTLI. 



enjoy the cool air in the moonlight. Groups of 

 merry dancers were seen at every turn^ — and 

 crowds of people listening to singers bawling out 

 their old romances to the sound of a guitar ; gay 

 parties sauntered along,laughingandtalkingat the 

 full stretch of their voices ; wild-looking horsemen 

 pranced about in all quarters, mixing amongst the 

 people on foot, drinking and talking with them, 

 but never dismounting. From one extremity of 

 the town to the other, in short, along the base of 

 the cliffs, and all round the beach of the Almen^ 

 dral, there was one uninterrupted scene of noise 

 and revelry. 



The bull-fights, which took place about four 

 o^^clock in the day, resembled any thing rather 

 than fights ; but they made the people laugh, 

 which was the principal object ; and by bringing 

 a crowd together in a merry mood, certainly con- 

 tributed quite as much to the general happiness, 

 as if they had been exhibited in the usual sangui- 

 nary manner. 



The area in which the bulls were baited was 

 a square enclosure or quadrangle, formed by a 

 temporary building about fifty yards across, rude- 



