I am only aware of one author who derides the statement that this porous clay was eaten by the Spanish women. According to Bowles, who certainly describes and comments on it with intelligence and scholarship, the neighbourhood of Andujar contains "large quantities of the white argil of which are made the jars or _alcarrazas_ which serve in many parts of Spain for cooling water in the summer-time. In other parts of Andalusia is found a red variety of this clay, employed in making the vessels known as _búcaros_, which serve to freshen the water as well as for drinking it out of--a thing the Spanish ladies love greatly. Both the white _alcarrazas_ and the _búcaros_ as red as the blood of a bull are thin, porous, smooth, and half-baked. When filled with water they emit a pleasant smell like that of dry earth rained upon in summer, and as the water filters through the outer surface, remain continually damp." The same writer adds that at that time (1752) the _búcaros_ proceeding from the Indies were of finer workmanship, and had a more agreeable smell than those of Spanish manufacture. "In the Encyclopædia," he continues, "and in the Dictionary of Natural History, we read that Spanish ladies are for ever chewing _búcaro_, and that the hardest penance their confessors can inflict upon them is to deprive them for a single day of this enjoyment." Bowles, however, quotes these observations in a scornful tone, and deprecates the habit of "believing writers who without inquiring into things, concoct and publish novels to divert the populace and rid them of their money." Turning our attention once again to the finer kinds of Talavera ware, Gestoso adduces proofs that this as well as Chinese porcelain was faultlessly and freely imitated in the potteries of Seville. Here, therefore, is a source of fresh confusion; and probably a great proportion of the polychrome ware which goes by the name of Talaveran is really of Sevillian origin. It is further known that at one period, which seems to begin with the second half of the sixteenth century, potters who were natives of Talavera were hired to work in Seville. [Illustration: LXX TALAVERA VASE]