rds, strapped on in front, with his short jacket and broad-brimmed
hat, offers a smart and typical figure.

In town or country, the beautiful oxen are worthy of admiration. They
are the most satisfactory of all the rural animals. Horses, shabby and
attenuated, little sheep of a colour from black to dirty grey, showing
affinity to goats, and having neither the grace of the latter nor the
sleepy comeliness of our own sheep, black and white cows whose points
would not be much thought of by judges at an agricultural show, goats of
all sorts of breeds, and finally pigs of a most lanky and uninviting
appearance, form the stock of the farms. Heaps of chickens of all sorts
run about everywhere, and enjoy fine dust-baths by the side of the road.

The aspect of the country varies much between north and south. In the
former, one sees real grass and hedges, and the bright flowers that are
common everywhere look all the better for their green background. The
commonest hedge in the south, and occasionally in the north, is made of
a few layers of stones loosely laid together with a row of aloe plants
on the top. These grow formidable in time, with huge sharp-pointed
leaves, and they present a curious appearance when at intervals in such
a row plants send up their huge flowering stems from nine to twelve feet
high, looking at a little distance like telegraph poles.

Despite the squalid clothes of the peasants, there are many picturesque
aspects of rural life. The driving of large herds of cattle by mounted
men, armed with long goads, is an interesting as well as an artistic
sight, and the same may be said of the primitive agricultural
occupations. The crops are harvested with a sickle, and you may wake up
some morning to see the field opposite your house invaded by some twenty
to thirty reapers, men and women, boys and girls, patiently sawing their
way through the wheat or barley, or whatever it is. The corn is threshed
out with the flail, or trodden out by the oxen--all operations fair to
look upon. Forms of cultivation interesting to watch are the very
primitive ploughing, the hoeing of the maize, and all those connected
with the culture of the vines and the orange and other fruit trees, and
especially the irrigation, which is so important to these latter. In
fact, one of the most charming of rural sights is the old water-wheel,
groaning and creaking as it is turned by the patient ox or mule or pony,
splashing the cool water from th