Late in the evening I was led into a crowded inn in a large village,
where we were to stay the night. We had come twenty-seven miles, and had
begun well. I was shown into a room with three straw-covered wooden
bedsteads, a rough table, lit by a lighted taper in a saucer of oil, a
rough seat, and the naked earth floor. Hot water was brought me to wash
with and tea to drink, and my man prepared me an excellent supper. My
baggage was in the corner; it consisted of two light bamboo boxes with
Chinese padlocks, a bamboo hamper, and a roll of bedding covered with
oilcloth. An oilcloth is indispensable to the traveller in China, for
placed next the straw on a Chinese bed it is impassable to bugs. And
during all my journey in China I was never disturbed in my sleep by this
unpleasant pest. Bugs in China are sufficiently numerous, but their
numbers cannot be compared with the gregarious hosts that disturb the
traveller in Spain.

My last night in Spain was spent in Cadiz, the most charming city in
the peninsula. I had lost the last boat off to the steamer, on which I
was a passenger; it was late at night, and I knew of no inn near the
landing. At midnight, as I was walking in the Plaza, called after that
revered monarch, Queen Isabel II., I was spoken to at the door of a
fonda, and asked if I wanted a bedroom. It was the taberna "La
Valenciana." I was delighted; it was the very thing I was looking for, I
said. The innkeeper had just one room unoccupied, and he showed me
upstairs into a plain, homely apartment, which I was pleased to engage
for the night. "_Que usted descanse bien_" (may you sleep well), said
the landlord, and left me. Keeping the candle burning I tumbled into
bed, for I was very tired, but jumped out almost immediately, despite my
fatigue. I turned down the clothes, and saw the bugs gathering in the
centre from all parts of the bed. I collected a dozen or two, and put
them in a basin of water, and, dressing myself, went out on the landing
and called the landlord.

He came up yawning.

"Sir," he said, "do you wish anything?"

"Nothing; but it is impossible, absolutely impossible, for me to sleep
in that bed."

"But why, senor?"

"Because it is full of bugs."

"Oh no, sir, that cannot be, that cannot be; there is not a bug in the
house."

"But I have seen them."

"You must be mistaken; it is impossible that there can be a bug in the
house."

"But I have caught some."

"It makes twenty years that I