is certainly considerably less expensive than at either
Nice or Cannes.

A certain inclination for seclusion is observable among the Maltese
women in all parts of the group. They are rarely, if ever, seen abroad
with their husbands. Their predilection for indoor life is pronounced,
and when hastening to morning mass through the streets of Valletta, the
shielding black hood is always in requisition, unrelieved by a touch of
bright or cheerful color. The general effect is nun-like and funereal.
There is an axiom current here to the effect that "A woman should never
appear abroad but twice,--on the day of her marriage, and that of her
funeral." This sentiment emphasises in a degree the fact of the Eastern
origin of the people. No such absolute seclusion as this saying implies
is, however, observed here. Though the faldetta is universally worn,
still, as we have already intimated, many women use it in so coquettish
a manner that they not only expose their pretty faces, but they also
manage to see all that goes on about them. The average woman is very
much the same, whether in Cairo, on the Strada Reale, Malta, or on the
Champs Elysees,--whether in the atmosphere of the Mediterranean, or on
the banks of the Seine. The semi-Oriental custom of the sex, as observed
in these islands, is doubtless a relic of their association with and
descent from the Mohammedans. As they neither use nor understand a word
of any language except Maltese Arabic, it is of course impossible for a
stranger to hold conversation with them. One would have to speak, not
Turkish, but Maltese Arabic, to do so.

The land in Malta is universally terraced on the side-hills. This method
serves a double purpose: that of beautifying the landscape, while it
secures the soil in its proper place, as one sees it in Switzerland or
on the Rhine. Being of a spongy nature, the soil retains the moisture
for a long time, thus insuring fertility. Though there are long periods
during which no rain falls, little trouble is realized from drought. The
ownership of the land is about equally divided between the English
government, the church, and two or three thousand farming proprietors.
The Roman Catholic institution is the same leech upon the common people
here that it proves to be on the mainland and in European countries,
keeping the ignorant, superstitious class in indigence by taxing its
individual members up to the last point of endurance, and beclouding
their humble me