Tout enchante les sens dans ce sejour fortune--la
purete de l'air--la beaute des femmes--enfin leur musique--leurs danses,
leurs jeux--tout inspire la volupte, et penetre l'ame d'une langueur
delicieuse. Les Zephirs ne s'y agitent que pour repandre au loin
l'esprit des fleurs et des plantes, et embaumer l'air de leurs suaves
odeurs."

This passage is, word for word, so exactly applicable to the Andalucians
and their land, that it is difficult to imagine another people to have
sat for the portrait, nor to a more talented painter. It is a pity that
the author I quote, is a rarity in modern libraries: owing, perhaps, to
his descriptions being at times rather warm, or, as his compatriots
would say, _un peu regence_.

In Spain, the country of proverbs, they are very fond of summing up, by
the aid of a few epithets, the distinctive character of each province.
As bad qualities frequently predominate in these estimates, it is of
course usual for the individual, who undertakes the instruction of a
foreigner in this department of knowledge, to omit the mention of his
own province. After all, the defects attributed to the inhabitants of
one portion of a country by those of another, are not to be taken for
granted without considerable reservation; allowance must be made for
rivalry and jealousies. Almost every country affords examples of these
wholesale accusations laid to the charge of particular counties or
divisions of territory. Thus the character usually attributed in Spain
to the Andalucians, is that of a people lively, gay, of extreme polish
and amiability of manners, but false and treacherous. The Galicians are
said to be stupid and heavy, but remarkably honest; the Catalonians
courageous but quarrelsome, _mauvais coucheurs_. No doubt in some of
these instances, the general impression may be borne out to a certain
extent, by some particular class of the denizens of the province alluded
to; but such distinctions are rarely perceptible among the educated
classes. It is perhaps less easy in Spain than elsewhere, to establish
these classifications at all successfully. Contradictions will be met
with at every step, calculated to shake their infallibility. To our eye,
as foreigners, there are sufficient peculiarities belonging to the
nation universally, and respecting which our knowledge is far from being
complete, without attempting to classify a greater or smaller list of
subdivisions, the appreciation of which would require a