Spaniards. [Sidenote: VENTA EATING.] They are very pressing in their invitations whenever any eating is going on. No Spaniard or Spaniards, however humble their class or fare, ever allow any one to come near or pass them when eating, without inviting him to partake. “_Guste usted comer?_” “Will your grace be pleased to dine?” No traveller should ever omit to go through this courtesy whenever any Spaniards, high or low, approach him when at any meal, especially if taking it out of doors, which often happens in these journeyings; nor is it altogether an empty form; all classes consider it a compliment if a stranger, and especially an Englishman, will condescend to share their dinner. In the smaller towns, those invited by English will often partake, even the better classes, and who have already dined; they think it civil to accept, and rude to refuse the invitation, and have no objection to eating any given _good_ thing, which is the exception to their ordinary frugal habits: all this is quite Arabian. The Spaniards seldom accept the invitation at once; they expect to be urged by an obsequious host, in order to appear to do a gentle violence to their stomachs by eating to oblige _him_. The angels declined Lot’s offered hospitalities until they were “pressed _greatly_.” Travellers in Spain must not forget this still existing Oriental trait; for if they do not greatly press their offer, they are understood as meaning it to be a mere empty compliment. We have known Spaniards who have called with an intention of staying dinner, go away, because this ceremony was not gone through according to their punctilious notions, to which our off-hand manners are diametrically opposed. Hospitality in a hungry inn-less land becomes, as in the East, a sacred duty; if a man eats all the provender by himself, he cannot expect to have many friends. Generally speaking, the offer is not accepted; it is always declined with the same courtesy which prompts the invitation. “_Muchas gracias, buen provecho le haga á usted_,” “Many thanks--much good may it do your grace,” an answer which is analogous to the _prosit_ of Italian peasants after eating or sneezing. These customs, both of inviting and declining, tally exactly, and even to the expressions used among the Arabs to this day. Every passer-by is invited by Orientals--“_Bismillah ya seedee_,” which means both a grace and invitation--“In the name of God, sir, (_i.e._) will you dine with us?” or “_Tafud’-dal_,” “Do me the favour to partake of this repast.” Those who decline reply, “_Heneê an_,” “May it benefit.” [Sidenote: AN EVENING AT A VENTA.] [Sidenote: HONESTY AND ANTIQUITY IN A VENTA.]