From the fish market, where the morning’s catch is displayed upon marble slabs, rises a very babel of voices. Loud and shrill is the clamour of the fishwives as they detain the passer-by with a scaly hand, and seek to repair the mischief with a no less scaly apron. Crabs and lobsters lie sprawling upon their backs, and wave stemmy legs amongst marine creatures never seen upon a hotel table—giant shell-fish, octopuses lying in knotted heaps, jelly-like squids, ugly thorny monsters who are all head, and gorgeous little fishes coloured like macaws—scarlet, blue, yellow, or glittering with metallic greens and reds.
“The country girls still retain the pretty muslin coif or rébosillo....”
(page [27])
“These dogs can boast a longer pedigree than any dogs under the sun, for they are descended from the hunting dogs of the old Egyptians....”
(page [29])