and of every, sagra (which is the holiday of one parish only), stalls are erected in the squares for the cooking and sale of these crullers, between which and the religious sentiment proper to the whole year there seems to be some occult relation. In the winter, the whole city appears to abandon herself to cooking for the public, till she threatens to hopelessly disorder the law of demand and supply. There are, to begin with, the caffè and restaurants of every class. Then there are the cook-shops, and the poulterers', and the sausage-makers'. Then, also, every fruit-stall is misty and odorous with roast apples, boiled beans, cab- bage, and potatoes. The chestnut-roasters infest every corner, and men, women, and children cry roast pumpkin at every turn, till at last hunger seems an absurd and fool- ish vice, and the ubiquitous beggars, no less than the habitual abstemiousness of every class of the population, become the most per- plexing and maddening of anomalies. -118- |