I met with a German merchant at _Barcelona_, who told me he had dealt
for goods to the value of five thousand pounds a year with a Spaniard in
that town; and though he had been often at _Barcelona_ before, that he
had never invited him to dine or eat with him, till that day.

The farrier who comes to shoe your horse has sometimes a sword by his
side; and the barber who shaves you crosses himself before he _crosses
your chin_.

There is a particular part of the town where the ladies of easy virtue
live; and if a friend calls at the apartment of one of those females,
who happens to _be engaged_, one of her neighbours tells you, she is
_amancebados y casarse a mediacarta_; _i.e._ that she is
half-married.--If you meet a Spanish woman of any fashion, walking
alone without the town, you may join her, and enter into whatever _sort
of conversation_ you chuse, without offence; and if you pass one without
doing so, she will call you _ajacaos_, and contemn you: this is a custom
so established at Madrid, that if a footman meets a lady of quality
alone, he will enter into some indecent conversation with her; for which
reason, the ladies seldom walk but with their husbands, or a male friend
by their side, and a foot-boy before, and then no man durst speak, or
even look towards them, but with respect and awe:--a blow in Spain can
never be forgiven; the striker must die, either _privately_ or publicly.

No people on earth are less given to excess in eating or drinking, than
the Spaniards; the _Olio_, or _Olla_, a kind of soup and _Bouilli_, is
all that is to be found at the table of some great men: the table of a
_Bourgeois_ of Paris is better served than many _grandees_ of Spain;
their chocolate, lemonade, iced water, fruits, &c. are their chief