SPANISH CHARACTERISTICS--BY WASHINGTON IRVING.[6]

[6] From the _Alhambra_.--See also, _Supplement_ published with
the present Number.


_Enjoyment in Travelling_.--We travelled in true contrabandista style,
taking every thing rough and smooth as we found it, and mingling with
all classes and conditions in a kind of vagabond companionship.

_A Miracle_.--Near Archidona is a mysterious path by which the Virgin
Mary is said to have led Queen Isabella to attack an old Moorish castle
on the summit of the mountain: you see this path like a riband up the
mountain side; but the miracle is, that though it can be seen at a
distance, when you come near it disappears!

_Imaginary Treasures_.--The thirsty man dreams of fountains and running
streams; the hungry man of ideal banquets; and the poor man of heaps of
hidden gold: nothing certainly is more magnificent than the imagination
of a beggar.

_Spaniards_.--There is a natural talent or mother wit, as it is called,
about the Spaniards, which renders them intellectual and agreeable
companions, whatever may be their condition in life, and however
imperfect may have been their education: add to this they are never
vulgar, nature has endowed them with an inherent dignity of spirit.

_Garden of Lindaraxa_.--"How beauteous is the garden!" says an Arabic
inscription, "where the flowers of the earth vie with the stars of
heaven, what can compare with the vase of yon alabaster fountain, filled