MENDOZA. 



69 



tail. A few Gauchos are riding about, selling fruit ; 

 and a beggar on horseback is occasionally seen, with 

 his hat in his hand, singing a psalm in a melancholy 

 tone. 



As soon as the sun has set, the Almeida is crowded 

 with people, and the scene is very singular and in- 

 teresting. The men are sitting at tables, either 

 smoking segars or eating ices : the ladies are sit- 

 ting on the mud benches which are on both sides 

 of the Almeida. This Almeida is a walk nearly a 

 mile long, between two rows of tall poplars ; on 

 one side of it are the garden-walls of the town, 

 concealed by roses and shrubs, and on the other the 

 stream of water which supplies the town. 



It will hardly be credited that, while this Almeida 

 is filled with people, women of all ages, without 

 clothes of any sort or kind, are bathing in great 

 numbers in the stream which literally bounds the 

 promenade. Shakespeare tells us, that the cha- 

 riest maid is prodigal enough if she unveil her 

 beauties to the moon,'' but the ladies of Mendoza, 

 not contented with this, appear e^en before the 

 sun ; and in the mornings and evenings they really 

 bathe without any clothes in the Rio de Mendoza, 



