Numberless kinds of dwellings obtain in various parts, conspicuous among which are the Asturian caverns, the subterranean abodes of La Mancha, the forts of Castile, and the Moorish palaces of Andalusia. Stone, hewn and unhewn, is the material employed in mountainous districts; _adobe_, or sun-dried brick, with thatched roof, upon the plains. A common class of architecture is a windowless parallelogram divided into two rooms, one for the family, and the other for the cattle, the attic being used as a barn. Houses of this kind are built in one and two stories. An out-house for stores, which is also used as a sleeping-place for the women, perched on pillars eight feet high, sometimes stands adjacent. Across one end of the family room, which, of necessity, is used for all domestic purposes, extends a fire-place, ten or fifteen feet in length and six feet in depth, over which is a large bell-shaped chimney extending out into the middle of the room. This style of building might be elaborated, wings added, or the form changed. Tiled roofs are common, and overhanging eaves. Some houses are of three or four stories; others run out long and low upon the ground. More pretentious dwellings are often in the form of a hollow square, with a _patio_ and garden within. Of such are convents with cloisters, and over them ranges of corridors and rooms. Among the upper classes the apartments of the lady consist of an antechamber, or drawing-room, a boudoir, a bed-room, a dressing-room, and an oratory. The drawing-room is furnished with tapestry hangings on which are represented battles and biblical scenes—war and religion even here; polished oak or mahogany high-backed chairs, clumsy, and elaborately carved; in the corners of the room triangular tables on which stand heavy silver or gold candlesticks with sperm candles, the light from which is reflected by small oval Venetian mirrors, in fantastically wrought gold or silver frames; cupboards with glass doors for plate, etc. In the boudoir is a toilet-table before Venetian mirrors profusely draped in handsome lace; a book-case, work-table, arm-chairs, sacred paintings and family portraits; in the sleeping-room, a tall heavy bedstead with damask or velvet curtains, a crucifix—the image of silver or gold, and the cross of ivory—with a little basin of holy water near it, a _priedieu_ and prayer-book; in the dressing-room a wardrobe, and all necessary toilet appliances; in the oratory an altar, a crucifix, two or more priedieux, and, if mass is said, as is often the case in the houses of the great or wealthy, images of saints by the masters, with all the accompanying ornaments of devotion.