acting as scavengers. When they became too numerous, the civil guards
laid poison about at night in the dust-heaps before the houses, and the
very early riser might see four or five of these great creatures lying
dead on the carts which collect the refuse of Madrid before the world in
general is astir. These wild dogs were disagreeable customers to meet
when riding outside the city, until we learned to avoid the localities
where they spent their days, for they would give chase to the horses if
they caught sight of them, and the only thing to be done was to remain
perfectly quiet until they tired of barking and returned to the
dust-hills to resume their search for food.

The description of peasant life in Madrid would be incomplete if we left
unmentioned the daily siesta in the sun of the Gallegos and lower-class
working-men. On the benches in the Prado, on the pavement, in the full
blaze of the sun, these men will stretch themselves and sleep for an
hour or two after their midday meal. I have seen the Gallego porters
make themselves a hammock with the rope they always carry with
them--_mozos de cuerda_ they are called--literally slinging themselves
to the _reja_ or iron bars of the window of some private house, and
sleep soundly in a position that would surely kill any other human
being. "Taking the sun" (_tomando el sol_) is, however, the custom of
every Spaniard of whatever degree.

The casual visitor to Madrid is always struck with the number of
carriages to be seen in the _paseo_; but the fact is that everyone keeps
a carriage, if it be at all possible, and it is no uncommon thing for
two or three _pollos_ to join together in the expense of this luxury,
and a sight almost unknown to us is common enough in Madrid--young men,
the "curled darlings" of society, lazily lounging in a Victoria or
Berlina in what is known as the "Ladies' Mile." The Madrid _pollo_ is
not the most favourable specimen of a Spaniard; the word literally means
a "chicken," but applied to a young man it is scarcely a complimentary
expression, and has its counterpart with us in the slang terms which
from time to time indicate the idle exquisite who thinks as much of his
dress and his style as any woman does or more. The Madrid _pollo_ often
is, or ought to be, a schoolboy, and the younger he is, naturally, the
more conceited and impertinent he is. It is curious that with the
feminine termination, this word (_polla_) loses all sense of banter or