Part 22
It is remarkable that such magical results were produced by the simplest means; for Arab ornamentation, far from being as complicated as it appears, is subject to certain plain geometrical rules. The figures, which at first sight show but a maze of lines and curves, can be easily resolved into the square and the circle; the shawls of Cashmere have afforded the patterns of the intricate floral designs lavished in such bewildering variety; the stalactitic cornices and domes are modelled after the sections of a pomegranate divested of its seeds. All the countries which the armies of Islam had overrun in their wonderful career seem to have furnished suggestions to the architects of the Alhambra. The huge stone blocks of the gates, fitted with perfect accuracy, are copied from the masonry of the Roman, who built for eternity; the hanging gardens are the gardens of Babylon; the lions that support the basin in the famous court are Phoenician; the fountain itself is an imitation of the brazen laver of Solomon, mentioned in the thirty-fourth _sura_ of the Koran; the _tarkish_, or stucco-work, was invented at Damascus; the hand of the Persian artist is visible upon the glittering walls of the Tower of Comares. Nor did the Moor, ever proud of his origin and tenacious of the prejudices of his race, though separated hundreds of leagues from the home of his ancestors and domiciled for centuries in a foreign land, reject the influence of their traditions in the decoration of his palaces. The lotus of Egypt and the palm of Arabia are interwoven in the foliage of every fretted hall; the letters of the Cufic alphabet--singularly adapted to ornament--proclaim the doctrines of Islam from cornice and capital; while the profusion of water and verdure proves that the Saracen, though surrounded by the luxuriant vegetation of the Vega, beheld a grove or a fountain with the same emotions as did the weary camel-driver when, uttering a prayer of thanksgiving to Allah, he hailed with delight the refreshing oasis shining amid the dull gray sands of the desert.
"Quien no ha visto Granada No ha visto nada,"--[B]
so saith the Andalusian proverb; but, aside from the Alhambra, the city boasts but few attractions. The streets are filthy beyond description, and so narrow that two persons can hardly ride abreast; the houses have a dilapidated appearance, and the people an air of dejected poverty. Long Venetian blinds hang over the balconies, and through their interstices peer the charming _Granadinas_, displaying in lustrous eyes and jet-black tresses their Moorish ancestry. At the side of almost every door is an altar, where a plaster image, arrayed in blue and tinsel, amid a cloud of votos and paper flowers, stares vacantly at the passer-by.
[Footnote B: "Who hath not Granada seen Is no traveller, I ween."]
The Granadan dress is wholly Spanish, far different from that of the western provinces, where Parisian fashions are fast supplanting the showy national costume. The ladies wear lace mantillas and close-fitting skirts of light-colored silk, and are never seen without the coquettish fan, which no one knows how to wield so well as the charming Spanish woman. As for the men, they are almost invariably muffled in a cloak that hides them to the very eyes, except on some grand holiday, when they appear in all the splendor of plush jacket and scarlet sash, adding much to the brilliancy of the gay and noisy throng. When riding, the lady usually mounts behind her lover, and, with nothing to steady her but a scarf fastened to the crupper, will gallop unconcernedly over mountain-roads and through crooked lanes at the greatest speed. At the festivals is exhibited to the best advantage the character of the idle and music-loving Andalusian, from the lounging dandy, praising in bad extempore verses the beauty of some bar-maid in the little wine-shop, to the dishevelled gypsy, equally ready to sing a song or pick the pocket of the careless and admiring stranger.
INDEX.
PAGE
Alhambra, The S. P. SCOTT 257 Andalusia, Seville, the Queen of S. P. SCOTT 238 ANONYMOUS Windsor Forest and Castle 36 Arthur's Land, King J. YOUNG 84
BARR, AMELIA The English Lake District 93 BEERS, W. GEORGE North of Ireland Scenes 168 BETHAM-EDWARDS, M. A French Farmer's Paradise 211 BOTFIELD, BERIAH Island of Staffa and Fingal's Cave 140 Bull-Fight, The Spanish JOSEPH MOORE 230 BURRITT, ELIHU Kenilworth and Warwick Castles 25
Chatsworth Castle JOHN LEYLAND 75 Cordova and Its Mosque S. P. SCOTT 218 Cork to Killarney SARAH J. LIPPINCOTT 157 Cumberland, The Roman Wall of ROSE G. KINGSLEY 105
DICKENS, CHARLES Travel in France Fifty Years Ago 189 Dublin OLIVER H. G. LEIGH 21
Edinburgh, The "Old Town" of ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 120 English Lake District, The AMELIA BARR 93 English Rural Scenery SARAH B. WISTER 112
Farmer's Paradise, A French M. BETHAM-EDWARDS 211 Fingal's Cave, Island of Staffa and BERIAH BOTFIELD 140 France Fifty Years Ago, Travel in CHARLES DICKENS 189 French Farmer's Paradise, A M. BETHAM-EDWARDS 211
Genoa, Street Scenes in AUGUSTA MARRYAT 249 Glasgow OLIVER H. G. LEIGH 23
HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL Westminster Abbey 56 HAWTHORNE, JULIAN The Gardens at Kew 64
Ireland and Its Capital MATTHEW WOODS 148 Ireland, Scenes in North of W. GEORGE BEERS 168 Island of Staffa and Fingal's Cave BERIAH BOTFIELD 140
Kenilworth and Warwick Castles ELIHU BURRITT 25 Kew, The Gardens at JULIAN HAWTHORNE 64 Killarney, Cork to SARAH J. LIPPINCOTT 157 King Arthur's Land J. YOUNG 84 KINGSLEY, ROSE G. The Roman Wall of Cumberland 105
Lake District, The English AMELIA BARR 93 Land of Rob Roy, In the