“They can’t make them white as these houses are.”
“Creation! there is a woman that looks like a squaw of a band of travelling Indians!—stove-pipe hat and all!” exclaimed Scott. “There is another with a load on her head.”
“The women are the principal beasts of burden in Teneriffe. They walk twenty miles in from the country, with a load of market-stuff on their heads,” added the doctor.
There was nothing very peculiar about the costume of the woman, except the hat, and a sort of cloth thrown over the head, and worn under the hat, which dropped over the arms and shoulders, like a shawl. The lower class of men wore short trousers, the front covered with goat-skin, a short jacket, and gaiters over their shoes. Many carried a staff as tall as the arm-pits. There were a few beggars about the streets, as there are in all Spanish towns; and their costume is as miscellaneous as those in Spain wear, except that the cloak is not endurable in this warm climate.
“This is the Plaza de la Constitution,” said the doctor as they entered a handsome square, bordered by a broad street, and liberally provided with street-lamps.
“I knew it was before you said a word!” exclaimed Scott.
“How did you know it?”
“Because the Spaniards all live on the constitution; and they have a square in every town that is big enough to hold one, with that name to it,” replied the joker, laughing. “I think they will use the constitution up one of these days, and have to fall back on the by-laws.”
“But this is a very pretty square; and the whole town is as neat as any thing we have seen,” added Sheridan. “These buildings are very fine; and I am sure I had no idea of finding any such a town among the Isles of the Sea.”
“The Spaniards here think a great deal of their city; and they have been liberal in the matter of public improvements,” replied the surgeon. “This piece of sculpture, which looks something like a monument when seen at a distance,” he continued, pointing to the object at one end of the enclosure of the square, “is a statue of the Virgin of Candelaria, representing her appearance to the Guanches, as the original inhabitants were called, and thus converting them to Christianity.”