consequently the time for repose, and the breakfast hour nevertheless
remaining the same all the year round, the _siesta_ is very essential,
and is judiciously placed between the dinner, which terminates at four,
and the hour for movement--nine, when the Sevillano, refreshed by three
or four hours sleep, and a fresh toilette, is infinitely better disposed
for the evening's amusements than the denizen of more northern climes,
who rises at that or a later hour from the chief repast of the day, and
is put _en train_ by the less natural and less durable stimulants of the
table.

This mode of life presents other numerous advantages. A very prominent
one is the inviolable division of time between society and solitude. We
suppose the hour for rising eight,--immediately after the
chocolate,--that of breakfast eleven. The intervening hours are
solitary, and are frequently divided between the pillow and the
toilette; while they are sometimes devoted to more useful occupations,
and added to by earlier risers. From the family meeting at breakfast
until the dinner hour, three, the time may be employed in business,
reading, in fact, in every one's habitual pursuits. No intrusion is to
be feared. No accursed idler lounges in to interrupt with his
compliments, or gossip, your letter to your lawyer, or, if you are a
lawyer yourself, that to your client; nor is the conscience of
scrupulous porters burdened with the mendacious "not at home."

These hours are sacred, and guaranteed by the very air, which renders
the streets impassable, but leaves the cool court protected from the
sun's ray by the _toldo_, (canvas awning spread at a level with the
roof, and which is reefed up at night like a sail,) and refreshed by its
ever-murmuring fountain and cool marble pavement, to the peaceable
enjoyment of its owners. The female portion of the family are thus
enabled to devote themselves to household occupations, or to their
favourite employments, without having to undergo, until the second
getting up in the evening, the fever of a complete toilette, which
would, during the day, be insupportable. The time thus devoted to
society, is amply sufficient; as it may be prolonged, as each party
feels inclined, from an hour or two after sunset, until the returning
rays drive all back to their cool retreat.

The night of the festival of St. John is, in Seville, sacred, from
remote time, to amusement and festivity. During the five or six hours of
darkness