The titles given to the innumerable images of the Virgin Mary, which supply the usual names of our females, might occasion the most ludicrous puns or misnomers, if habit had not diverted the mind from their real meaning. No names are more common than _Encarnacion_, Incarnation--_Concepcion_, Conception--_Visitacion_, Visitation--_Maravillas_, Marvels--_Regla_, Rule--_Dolores_, Pains--_Agustias_, Anguishes--_Soledad_, Solitude--_Natividad_, Nativity, &c. Other titles of the Virgin afford, however, more agreeable associations. Such are _Estrella_, Star--_Aurora_--_Amparo_, Protection--_Esperanza_, Hope--_Salud_, Health--_Pastora_, Shepherdess--_Rocio_, Dew, &c. But words, as it is said of the chameleon, take the colour of the objects to which they are attached; and I have known _Pains_ and _Solitudes_ among our Andalusians, who, had they been more numerous, might have produced a revolution in the significations of the language. CHRISTMAS. Since no festival of any interest takes place between summer and this season, it is already time to conclude these notes with the expiring year. It was the custom, thirty or forty years since, among families of fortune, to prepare, for an almost public exhibition, one or two rooms of the house, where, upon a clumsy imitation of rocks and mountains, a great number of baby-houses and clay figures, representing the commonest actions of life, were placed amidst a multitude of lamps and tapers. A half ruined stable, surrounded by sheep and cattle, was seen in the front of the room, with the figures of Joseph, Mary, and some shepherds, kneeling in adoration of the child in the manger--an act which an ass and an ox imitated with the greatest composure. This collection of puppets, called _Nacimiento_, is still, though seldom intended for show, set up in many houses, both for the amusement and the religious gratification of the family and their more intimate friends.