Any remarks on Spanish salads would be incomplete without some account of _gazpacho_, that vegetable soup, or floating salad, which during the summer forms the food of the bulk of the people in the torrid portions of Spain. This dish is of Arabic origin, as its name, “soaked bread,” implies. This most ancient Oriental Roman and Moorish refection is composed of onions, garlic, cucumbers, chilis, all chopped up very small and mixed with crumbs of bread, and then put into a bowl of oil, vinegar, and fresh water. Reapers and agricultural labourers could never stand the sun’s fire without this cooling acetous diet. This was the οξυκρατος of the Greeks, the _posca_, potable food, meat and drink, _potus et esca_, which formed part of the rations of the Roman soldiers, and which Adrian (a Spaniard) delighted to share with them, and into which Boaz at meal-time invited Ruth to dip her morsel. Dr. Buchanan found some Syrian Christians who still called it _ail_, _ail_, _Hil_, _Hila_, for which our Saviour was supposed to have called on the Cross, when those who understood that dialect gave it him from the vessel which was full of it for the guard. In Andalucia, during the summer, a bowl of gazpacho is commonly ready in every house of an evening, and is partaken of by every person who comes in. It is not easily digested by strangers, who do not require it quite so much as the natives, whose souls are more parched and dried up, and who perspire less. The components, oil, vinegar, and bread, are all that is given out to the lower class of labourers by farmers who profess to feed them; two cow’s horns, the most primitive form of bottle and cup, are constantly seen suspended on each side of their carts, and contain this provision, with which they compound their _migas_: this consists of crumbs of bread fried in oil, with pepper and garlic; nor can a stronger proof be given of the common poverty of their fare than the common expression, “_buenas migas hay_,” there are _good crumbs_, being equivalent to capital eating. In very cold weather the mess is warmed, and then is called _gazpacho caliente_. Oh! dura messorum ilia--oh! the iron mess digesting stomachs of ploughmen.
Drinks of Spain--Water--Irrigation--Fountains--Spanish Thirstiness--The Alcarraza--Water Carriers--Ablutions--Spanish Chocolate--Agraz--Beer Lemonade.