appreciation of the strains which they heard, lost no opportunity of performing various practical jokes upon the public generally. Knots of men, with skins burnt to the darkest brown hue, and clad in striped mantles, velvet sombreros, and sashes, with their legs bandaged, and their feet in apostolic-looking sandals, were sauntering in the street, followed by some stray dogs and a loose mule or two. Anything like the noise they all made as they threaded their passage through the crowd, cannot be conceived. Their incessant chattering somewhat resembled that heard in the parrot-house of our Zoological Gardens. In the province of Valencia, if we may believe their statistical authorities, there is an average of six hundred murders per annum. And the judicial mind of the Valencians is very amenable to lenity towards the accused, under the softening influence of Spanish money equal in amount to about three pounds sterling. The value of human life does not appear to be estimated very highly by the masses, and it is frequently sacrificed on very slight occasions. A few words at a tavern, a little heat in argument, or a slight difference of opinion, will generally end in one of the disputants finding six inches of cold steel entering his vitals in some unsuspecting moment. A sharp knife is found to be a very decisive method of settling all controversies, whatever may be their nature. These knives, which are sold in the shops avowedly for the purpose for which they are used, are very formidable instruments, with blades from three inches to a foot and a half in length, and with this inscription engraved thereon, "Soi sola para defender el onor." However, after our own Todmorton heroes, and young gentlemen who pass their time in pursuit of science by dissecting little children in woods and carrying about their eyes in their pockets, we cannot well blame the Spaniards for endeavouring, in the indulgence of such little social amenities, to keep up in the race with other civilised nations. FOOTNOTES: [18] Called Toledoth by the Jew, who shared its riches with the Moor. [19] Charles V. [20] The Vega, now a desert, was once a perfect forest of palms and mulberry trees. [21] Derived possibly from the Russian "Tarantass," or springless carriage. [22] Bull-fighter. [23] El Grao. Grado, grades,--steps to the sea. [24] Bunyan. [Illustration: [++] Decorative Image] CHAPTER XI. VOYAGE TO THE BALEARES.--MAJORCA.--PALMA DE MALLORCA.--OUR APPREHENSION.--FONDA DE LAS TRES PALOMAS.--HISTORICAL NOTICES.--DON JAYME.--THE RAMBLA.--COSTUME.--LANGUAGE.--CLIMATE. --CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. Allons donc, en route for the Balearic Isles, or the Baleares, the birth-place of the great Hannibal, and for Palma, the capital, situated in the south-western portion of the island of Majorca. "Minora canamus," says the Latin poet. "Majorca canamus," say we.