DISCOVERING SPAIN.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17941, 8 December 1923, Page 13

DISCOVERING SPAIN.

■ . » IN A PORTUGUESE POSADA. (spkoaixt warmar fob "raa ybxss.")' (By W. I>*A. Cresswell.) •VI. "We reached Vendas Novas at five in the afternoon. It is town, containing in its barren, central squnro a large barracks, garrisoned with Artillery. There was something about its wide, dusty centre that reminded you of the towns of the American West, or of the New Zealand back blocks, whero saloons and chemists and the first symptoms of drapery face each other in silence across a blinding expanse of dust that will some day bo a square with a band rotunda. Wo halted outside tho town, beside the railway, where two soldiers became rrmch interested in. our khaki shirts and strong boots and equipment. Their own clothes were shabby and their boots in tatters. Butt it would bo an impertinence to sympathise, for tho roads are soft, tho weather is equable, and life for them, you suspect, easy and enjoyable. They would sympathise, I am sure, with tho immaculate, machine-like Guardsmen of the British Army, whoso puttees and squared packs reproduce 60 beautifully in bronze. ' « "Fax from England." We slept that night a. Vendas Novas, The town seemed peopled by none but soldiers. They were sitting aimlessly about, or crowding round the doora of eafos, when we approcTied. At once they followed us in .a large, increasing crowd, beseiging the posada into which we were directed, a quiet, good n&tured lo't, all alike in their untidyness, i their brown faces, and their glittering lively eyes. Two girfs behind a counter regarded this invasion with amaaement, while we endeavoured to mako it known that we required accommodation. The, army behind us pressed forward to overhear our remarks,' blocking tho doorway and throwing thut curious interion into darkness. . ..-, "Ingles!" they whisper; "walking round the world!-' "Third time round," remarks M- , wiping the perspiration from his fae© and endeavouring to rest his pack on the counter. The girls retreated into a deeper darkness. Soon they returned with a woman who permitted ua to follow them within. I don't think that posada would astonish me now; I have seen a good many since But ( at that tune* the confusion with which stable, pigstye and lodgings, strong darkness and stronger sunlight seemed to mingle beneath one roof, together with the occupants of each, fowls, dogs* women and donkeys, caused us to remark that we were indeed very far from England and less healthy conditions of living. We were-led, with some to the top floor, where, beneath a Bloping■>'" Toof, a number of dirty mattresses lay on the boards. s Asking for something a little better, we were taken below again and given a room with two beds. It is never assumed, in Portugal and Spain, that a traveller requires a bed. Lnless he asks for a bed, he will be given a place on the floor, where he . may spread his own blankets. Here in our. room- we drank great jugs of hot milk, ate some bread and? cheese, and then descended . to the street. Sweet smiles from the counter greeted our passage through the shop, and nothing, I believe, but the sight of a donkey cart laden with bright cherries in the sunlight without could have led us away at that moment. But our madness for fruit had become uncontrollable during the hot march from Lisbon. We bought a pound .of them and then sought a spot where we might eat greedily. W« wandered into a dusty lane, shut in by high walls of the same yellow dust, until we reached a forest of bluegums that grew near the town. All the way we Were pursued by urchins who asked us for our cherries and obliged us to part with a few, which was trying when you, .desired to be greedy. We circled a n?gn wall, walking between the bare, angular clay o fthe town and the more intricate and coloured edges of the forest. At this hour of sunset the bare walla ci: the town wore a canvas spread with paTe tones of shadow and light, lit beautifully at just that -hour when, men have finished work and can turn to-leisure end ideals. We were amased . * to notice, among the scratcljingflon.tba wall beside us, some, obscene phrases in English. We concluded they were the work of Portuguese soldiers who had been in France, adjacent to the BritTo Bed and Bugs. Returning early, to enjoy to the'fuU soft beds • with sheets, we discovered a great, flat bath beneath my bed,' and called for water and splashed in it excitedly by the light of one-candle and the large electric lights of the square. Soon wo were in bed, said I was almost asleep, when M terminated a period of restlessness by a loud oath and called me to observe some 'discovery. It proved jo be a strange sort of bug, almost the size of threepenoe' (in coppere), which had bitten'." him. severely. He killed two or 'three of , them (though formidable, they wore easily overtaken),* while I ripped the sheets from my bed and searched. Discovering Withing, I endeavoured .to quieten my anxiety and to sleep. So far from London, one couldn't ring for the maid. It was very hot. You lay beneath a single sheet, beside French windows that wore wide open and showed you tho stars, the stronger lights of the square, the roofs of the barracks, and a lighted clock that was like the moon. All night, from the pavement below, rose - the voices of 'soldiers, shouts, swearing > and laughter, general everywhere at i first, but, after midnight, more conspicuous as single, lonely groups of j sound that loitered through the large ■; silence of the town, each centred about j the voice of some woman. M—— had '\ little sloop that night; his bed was in- i tested, though mine seemed quit* immune. He endeavoured, m the mom-\ ing, to purchase lome eucalyptus with which to encounter these pests on another occasion. But our dictionary stopped remarkably and uselessly a< "eucharist." That is so like Spain.