But when were donkeys of any
sort ever well advised in all respects? Those of Seville, where donkeys
abound, were otherwise of the superior intelligence which throughout
Spain leaves the horse and even the mule far behind, and constitutes the
donkeys, far beyond the idle and useless dogs, the friends of man. They
indefinitely outnumber the dogs, and the cats are of course nowhere in
the count. Yet I would not misprize the cats of Seville, which
apparently have their money price. We stopped to admire a beautiful
white one, on our way to see the market one day, praising it as
intelligibly as we could, and the owner caught it up, when we had passed
and ran after us, and offered to sell it to us.
That might have been because it was near the market where we experienced
almost the only mercantile zeal we had known in Spain. Women with ropes
and garlands of onions round their necks invited us to buy, and we had
hopeful advances from the stalls of salads and fruits, where there was a
brave and beautiful show of lettuces and endives, grapes, medlars, and
heaps of melons, but no oranges; I do not know why, though there were
shining masses of red peppers and green, peppers, and vast earthen bowls
with yellow peas soaking in them.
Pages:
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334