“Those plants are cacti; and I think I have told you something about them to-day,” added the doctor. “The rags are tied about them to protect the insects, for they are full of them. It takes about three months for them to attain their growth, and be ready to lay eggs. They furnish the principal occupation of the laboring-classes since the failure of the vine. When I first came along here, this road was bordered with extensive and beautiful vineyards; but they have given place for the present to this not very handsome plant, which was brought here from Mexico.”
“Those are funny-looking houses!” exclaimed Murray, as they came upon a little collection of dwellings of the peasants.
“They are very comfortable houses for poor people,” replied the doctor; “a great deal better than many of the laboring-people of Spain occupy.”
Some of them were built of stone; others were evidently composed of poles set in the ground; and in the latter case the walls, as well as the roofs, were thatched.
“All the poor people do not have houses as good as these, but, like the gypsies of Granada, have to burrow into the rocks to make caves for dwellings. But this is a very soft climate, and the house is not of so much consequence as in Russia or Norway.”
“There is a woman with a load on her head! it looks like garden-sauce. There is another with a pile of wood on her crown,” cried Scott.
“Domestic animals are not very plenty in these islands; and the women seem to have a monopoly of the carrying-trade,” continued the surgeon.
“Hi! Hi!” shouted Scott, as they turned a bend in the winding road. “There are your beasts of burden!”
“What are they?” asked Sheridan.
“Camels; don’t you know them?”