101 
Chap. VII.—B. S.] SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION. 
take off nearly every rag of clothing when they go to 
sleep, and lie down around the houses, often in the 
middle of the yard. They do not seem to mind either 
the dew or the moon, and the blanket, which every 
one carries, is scarcely ever used, except just before 
dawn. All classes are dreadfully afraid of water; 
and whenever they see a European wash himself, es¬ 
pecially early in the morning, they never fail to tell 
him of the danger which he is running. I watched 
some of the dons, in whose company I was thrown 
for a week, and found they never touched water during 
the whole of that time. To my broad hints, they 
replied that they had a slight attack of fever, or a 
'cold just approaching. 
With a few exceptions, the houses are very filthy, 
and full of vermin. This remark applies with full 
force to blew Segovia and Matagalpa, where a broom 
is a curiosity made of palm-leaves, when, on some 
festive occasion, the house is to be swept. I strongly 
advise future travellers to provide themselves with a 
tent, and thus escape the necessity of seeking any 
other shelter hut their own. I could not help recalling 
to mind the neat houses and clean persons of the so- 
called Polynesian savages. After profiting for more 
than three centuries by Christianity and European 
civilization, the Central Americans compare unfavour¬ 
ably—socially, politically, intellectually, and morally 
—with the South Sea Islanders. 
Nicaraguans, though generally ignorant of the most 
elementary knowledge, for instance, talking of Great 
Britain and the United States as one country, and of 
