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A MORNING’S JOURNEY 185
one after another. You could hear them sweeping the
floors in the first and second stories. They did not
sweep the dust into a dust-pan, but simply propelled it
over the edge of the balcony so that it landed on the
heads of those passing below on the sidewalk. But
only a foreigner would think of walking on the side-
walk, so it did not matter. They threw out even more
questionable substances from the windows and bal-
conies at this time of day, and a wise man soon learned
to keep to the center of the street. Furthermore, you
were never without reasonable warning. Persons
about to empty certain secular vessels into the open
air never neglected to pronounce the blessed words:
“Jesus, Maria y José!” before they did so.
In the sunlight on the market place there were
groups of idle Spaniards standing around—slender,
draped in their cloaks, smoking—chewing the political
cud of the latest events. These discussions were as
long as a sun’s ray and as frail as a rotten egg. ‘The
beggars were already on the job—Granada’s hundreds
of beggars. They had spent the night under staircases,
in obscure corners, under wagons, any place which
offered some protection. There were some whose rags
were a mere crust of blue loam and mire. They had
slept by night along the subterranean course of the
Darro. Now they emerged from their secret hiding-
place and hobbled above, pale with the cold, perform-
ing their morning toilet by the fountain or begging for
alms to pay for breakfast.
Cattle-bells were heard from up the market-place
and a herd of goats turned into the street, driven by a
shepherd clad from top to toe in sheepskin, with the
woolly surface outside. Women and servant-girls came
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