34 PLAYA OF GRANADA. Book I. 
which, in young persons, looks like a mischievous coyness, 
while in old individuals it is more or less expressive of 
diffidence and caution. 
In speaking of the great features presented by the situ- 
ation and the popular life of Granada, I have to mention 
the beach of the Lake, next to the town. Never have I 
seen a brighter scene than the ci playa " of Granada. The 
way down from tbe city passes through thickets of shrub- 
bery covered with the most splendid flowers, amongst 
which the Poinciana, with scarlet panicles, is most promi- 
nent. With the exception of the noon-time, there is 
always considerable life on this road. Clumsy carts drawn 
by oxen move awkwardly along, hauling goods up and 
down from and to the landing-place. Groups of mis- 
chievous girls, boldly balancing their red water-jars on 
their heads, laugh and chatter as they walk between gay 
flowers and swarms of splendid butterflies. Swarthy 
women, always in good humour, with baskets filled with 
linen on their heads, move down in files in the morning 
and return in the evening. For more than half a mile the 
beach is occupied by them, as, more than half undressed 
and kneeling in the water up to their hips, they beal£their 
linen on a stone, rub it and wash it, or, moving a&out, 
spread it on the clean sand of the beach, where it dries 
almost instantaneously from the heat of the bottom and 
the powerful rays of a perpendicular sun. Every morning 
and evening hundreds of persons of both sexes and of every 
age are bathing here promiscuously. That this is no 
place for modesty, as the civilised nations of a colder zone 
understand it, is a matter of course ; but I may add that 
the ladies of the higher classes observe a stricter decorum. 
They go early in the morning when the playa is less fre- 
quented, and select their place at some distance from abso- 
