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LA JOTA.
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life. That of the younger ones was much more tolerable. We saw some really beautiful specimens of embroidery. Having returned to the hall, where there was a piano, some of our party began to sing and play. The Señora G——o sang an Italian air beautifully. She is evidently a scientific musician. The Señorita H——s played one of Herz's most difficult combinations with great execution, and a pretty girl, who is living in the convent, having been placed there by her novio, to keep her out of harm's way till he is prepared to give her his hand, sang a duet with another young lady, which I accompanied. Both had fine voices, but no notion of what they were singing. My friend, the Señora C—— delighted us with some of the innumerable and amusing verses of the Jota Arragonesa, which seem to have neither end nor beginning, all gay and all untranslatable, or at least losing their point and wit when put into an English dress. Such as


A poor man met with a sixpence,
And for joy he gave up the ghost,
And in the troubles of death,
Even his sixpence was lost.





The woman who loves two at once
Knows what is discreet and right,
Since if one of her candles goes out
Still the other remains alight, &c. . . . .

It is impossible to see any building of this size kept more perfectly clean and neat; generally the case here in all establishments which are under petticoat government. These old Spanish institutions are cer-