WASHINGTON IRVING THE ALHAMBRA and WOLFERTS ROOST and MISCELLANEOUS By WASHINGTON IRVING f R. F. FENNO & COMPANY: PUB LISHERS : 9 & ii E. SIXTEENTH STREET : NEW YORK CITY : 1900 IOSG DEDICATION. TO DAVID WILKIE, ESQ., R.A. MY DEAR Sm : You may remember that, in the course ot the rambles we once took together about some of the old cities of Spain, particularly Toledo and Seville, we frequently remarked the mixture of the Saracenic with the Gothic, remaining from the time of the Moors, and were more than once struck with incidents and scenes in the streets, that brought to mind pas sages in the "Arabian Nights." You then urged me to write something illustrative of these peculiarities ; ' ' something in the Haroun Alraschid style," that should have a dash of that Ara bian spice which pervades every thing in Spain. I call this to mind to show you that you are, in some degree, responsible for the present work; in which I have given a few "Arabesque" sketches and tales, taken from the life, or founded on Hocal tra ditions, and mostly struck off during a residence in one of the most legendary and Morisco-Spanish places of the Peninsula. I inscribe this work to you, as a memorial of the pleasant scenes we have witnessed together, in that land of adventure, and as a testimony of an esteem for your worth, which can only be exceeded by admiration of your talents. Your Mend and fellow traveller, THE AUTHOR, 434920 THE ALHAMBRA. CCOTTEKTS, MM 1)EDICATIOW I THE JOURNEY , 7 GOVERNMENT OF THE ALHAMBRA 80 INTERIOR OP THE ALHAMBRA - SX THE Towim ou- CoteARES SB REFLECTIONS ON THE MOSLEM DOMINATION IN SPAIN 82 THE HOUSEHOLD 35 THE TRUANT 88 THE AUTHOR'S CHAMBER 41 THE ALHAMBRA BY MOONLIGHT , 45 INHABITANTS OF THE ALHAMBRA a , 46 THE BALCONY. 49 THE ADVENTURE OF THE MASON 54 A RAMBLE AMONG THE HILLS 57 THE COURT OF LIONS . , , 68 BOABDIL EL CHICO 67 MOMENTOS OF BOABDIL 70 THE TOWER OF LAS INFANTAS 75 HE HOUSE OF THE WEATHERCOCK 74 fiEGHND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 75 LEGEND OF THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 89 LOCAL TRADITIONS 108 LEGEND OF THE MOOR'S LEGACY 109 VISITORS OF THE ALHAMBRA 126 LEGEND OF PRINCE AHMED AL KAMEL; OR, THE PILGRIM OF LOVE 180 LEGEND OF THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA; OR, THE PAGE AND THE GER-FALCOH. 156 THE VETERAN 168 THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 170 GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 178 LEGEND OF THE Two DISCREET STATUES , 189 MAHAMAD ABEN ALAHMAR, THE FOUNDER OF THE ALHAMBRA , 208 JUSEF ABUL HAGIAS, THE FINISHER o THE Ar.mifBBi , 309 THE ALHAMBRA. A SERIES OF TALES AND SKETCHES OF THE MOORS AND SPANIARDS. THE JOURNEY. IN the spring of 1829, the author of this work, whom curiosity had brought into Spain, made a rambling expedition from Se ville to Granada, in company with a friend, a member of the Russian embassy at Madrid. Accident had thrown us together from distant regions of the globe, and a similarity of taste led us to wander together among the romantic mountains of An dalusia. Should these pages meet his eye, wherever thrown, by the duties of his station, whether mingling in the pageantry of courts or meditating on the truer glories of nature, may they recall the scenes of our adventurous companionship, and with them the remembrance of one, in whom neither time nor dis< tance will obliterate the recoUection of his gentleness and worth. And here, before setting forth, let me indulge in a few previ ous remarks on Spanish scenery and Spanish travelling. Many are apt to picture Spain in their imaginations as a soft southern region decked out with all the luxuriant charms of voluptuous Italy. On the contrary, though there are excep tions in some of the maritime provinces, yet, for the greater part, it is a stern, melancholy country, with rugged mountains and long, naked, sweeping plains, destitute of trees, and inva riably silent and lonesome, partaking of the savage and solitary character of Africa. What adds to this silence and loneliness, is the absence of singing birds, a natural consequence of the want of groves and hedges. The vulture and the eagle are seen wheeling about the mountain, cliffs and soaring over the p 6 THE ALUAMBRA. and groups of 'sfcy'imstards: stall* about the heaths, but th myriads of smaller birds; which 'animate the whole face of other countri6s,:ccre:ip;et>witii in bufcfew provinces of Spain, and in them chiefly ainong ' the orchards and gardens which sur round the habitations of man. In the exterior provinces, the traveller occasionally traverses great tracts cultivated with grain as far as the eye can reach, waving at times with verdure, at other times naked and sun burnt; but he looks round in vain for the hand that has tilled the soil : at length he perceives some village perched on a steep hill, or rugged crag, with mouldering battlements and ruined watch-tower ; a strong-hold, in old times, against civil war or Moorish inroad ; for the custom among the peasantry of congre gating together for mutual protection, is still kept up in most parts of Spain, in consequence of the marauding of roving free booters. But though a great part of Spain is deficient in the garniture of groves and forests, and the softer charms of ornamental cul tivation, yet its scenery has something of a high and lofty char acter to compensate the want. It partakes something of the attributes of its people, and I think that I better understand the proud, hardy, frugal and abstemious Spaniard, his manly defiance of hardships, and contempt of effeminate indulgences, since I have seen the country he inhabits. There is something, too, in the sternly simple features of the Spanish landscape, that impresses on the soul a feeling of sub limity. The immense plains of the Castiles and La Mancha, extending as far as the eye can reach, derive an interest from their very nakedness and immensity, and have something of the solemn grandeur of the ocean. In ranging over these boundless wastes, the eye catches sight, here and there, of a straggling herd of cattle attended by a lonely herdsman, mo tionless as a statue, with his long slender pike tapering up like a lance into the air ; or beholds a long train of mules slowly moving along the waste like a train of camels in the desert, or a single herdsman, armed with blunderbuss and stiletto, and prowling over the plain. Thus, the country, the habits, the very looks of the people, have something of the Arabian char acter. The general insecurity of the country is evinced in the universal use of weapons. The herdsman in the field, the shep herd in the plain has his musket and his knife. The wealthy villager rarely ventures to the market-town without his trabu- cho, and, perhaps, a servant on foot with a blunderbuss on THE JOURNEY. Q his shoulder; and the most petty journey is undertaken with the preparations of a warlike enterprise. The dangers of the road produce, also, a mode of travelling, resembling, on a diminutive scale, the caravans of the East. The arrierors or carriers, congregate in troops, and set off in large and well-armed trains on appointed days, while individual travellers swell their number and contribute to their strength. In this primitive way is the commerce of the country carried on. The muleteer is the general medium of traffic, and the legitimate wanderer of the land, traversing the Peninsula from the Pyrenees and the Asturias, to the Alpuxarras, the Serrania de Ronda, and even to the gates of Gibraltar. He lives frugally and hardily; his alforjas (or saddle-bags), of coarse cloth, hold his scanty stock of provisions ; a leathern bottle hanging at his saddle-bow, contains wine or water for a supply across barren mountains and thirsty plains ; a mule cloth spread upon the ground is his bed at night, and his pack-saddle is his pillow. His low but clear-limbed and sinewy form betokens strength ; his complexion is dark and sun-burnt; his eye resolute, but quiet in its expression, except when kindled by sudden emo tion; his demeanour is frank, manly, and courteous, and he never passes you without a grave salutation " Dios guarda a listed I" " Yay usted con Dios caballero !" " God guard you !" "God be with you ! cavalier !" As these men have often their whole fortune at stake upon the burden of their mules, they have their weapons at hand, slung to their saddles, and ready to be snatched down for des perate defence. But their united numbers render them secure against petty bands of marauders, and the solitary bandalero, armed to the teeth, and mounted on his Andalusian steed, hovers about them, like a pirate about a merchant convoy, without daring to make an assault. The Spanish muleteer has an inexhaustible stock of songs and ballads, with which to beguile his incessant way-faring. The airs are rude and simple, consisting of but few inflexions. These he chants forth with a loud voice, and long drawling cadence, seated sideways on his mule, who seems to listen with infinite gravity, and to keep time with his paces, to the tune. The couplets thus chanted are often old traditional romances about the Moors ; or some legend of a saint ; or some love ditty ; or, what is still more frequent, some ballad about a bold contra- bandista, or hardy bandalero ; for the smuggler and the robber are poetical heroes among the common people of Spain. Often 10 THE ALHAMBRA. the song of the muleteer is composed at the instant, and relates to some local scene, or some incident of the journey. This tal ent of singing and improvising is frequent in Spain, and is said to have been inherited from the Moors. There is something wildly pleasing in listening to these ditties among the rude and lonely scenes they illustrate, accompanied as they are, by the occasional jingle of the mule-bell. It has a most picturesque effect, also, to meet a train of mule teers in some mountain pass. First you hear the bells of the leading mules, breaking with their simple melody the stillness of the airy height ; or, perhaps, the voice of the muleteer ad monishing some tardy or wandering animal, or chanting, at the full stretch of his lungs, some traditionary ballad. At length you see the mules slowly winding along the cragged defile, sometimes descending precipitous cliffs, so as to present themselves in full relief against the sky, sometimes toiling up the deep arid chasms below you. As they approach, you descry their gay decorations of worsted tufts, tassels, and saddle cloths ; while, as they pass by, the ever ready trabucho, slung behind their packs and saddles, gives a hint of the insecurity of the road. The ancient kingdom of Granada, into which we are about to penetrate, is one of the most mountainous regions of Spain. Vast sierras or chains of mountains, destitute of shrub or tree, and mottled with variegated marbles and granites, elevate their sun-burnt summits against a deep blue sky, yet in their rugged bosoms lie engulfed the most verdant and fertile valley, where the desert and the garden strive for mastery, and the very rock, as it were, compelled to yield the fig, the orange, and the cit- ron, and to blossom with the myrtle and the rose. In the wild passes of these mountains, the sight of walled towns and villages built like eagles' nests among the cliffs, and surrounded by Moorish battlements, or of ruined watch-towers perched on lofty peaks, carry the mind back to the chivalrous days of Christian and Moslem warfare, and to the romantic struggle for the conquest of Granada. In traversing their lofty Sierras, the traveller is often obliged to alight and lead his horse up and down the steep and jagged ascents and descents, resem bling the broken steps of a staircase. Sometimes the road winds along dizzy precipices, without parapet to guard him from the gulfs below, and then will plunge down steep and dark and dangerous deck' vities. Sometimes it struggles through rugged barrancos, or ravines, worn by water torrents; the ob- 'THE JOURNEY. H scure paths of the Contrabandista, while ever and anon, thg ominous cross, the memento of robbery and murder, erected on a mound of stones at some lonely part of the road, admon ishes the traveller that he is among the haunts of banditti; perhaps, at that very moment, under the eye of some lurking bandalero. Sometimes, in winding through the narrow valleys, he is startled by a horse bellowing, and beholds above him, on some green fold of the mountain side, a herd of fierce Andalu- sian bulls, destined for the combat of the arena. There is something awful in the contemplation of these terrific animals, clothed with tremendous strength, and ranging their native pastures, in untamed wildness : strangers almost to the face of man. They know no one but the solitary herdsman who attends upon them, and even he at times dares not venture to approach them. The low bellowings of these bulls, and their menacing aspect as they look down from their rocky height, give addi tional wildness to the savage scenery around. I have been betrayed unconsciously into a longer disquisition than I had intended on the several features of Spanish travel ling ; but there is a romance about all the recollections of the Peninsula that is dear to the imagination. It was on the first of May that my companion and myself set forth from Seville, on our route to Granada. We had made all due preparations for the nature of our journey, which lay through mountainous regions where the roads are little better than mere mule paths, and too frequently beset by robbers. The most valuable part of our luggage had been forwarded by the arrieros ; we retained merely clothing and necessaries for the journey, and money for the expenses of the road, with a sufficient surplus of the latter to satisfy the expectations of robbers, should we be assailed, and to save ourselves from the rough treatment that awaits the too wary and emptyhanded traveller. A couple of stout hired steeds were provided for ourselves, and a third for our scanty luggage, and for the conveyance of a sturdy Biscayan lad of about twenty years of age, who was to guide us through the perplexed mazes of the mountain roads, to take care of our horses, to act occasionally as our valet, and at all times as our guard ; for he had a for midable trabucho, or carbine, to defend us from rateros, or solitary footpads, about which weapon he made much vain glorious boast, though, to the discredit of his generalship, I must say that it generally hung unloaded behind his saddle. He was, however, a faithful, cheery, kind-hearted creature, full 12 THE ALIIAMBRA. at saws and proverbs as that miracle of squires, the renowned Sancho himself, whose name we bestowed upon him ; and, like a true Spaniard, though treated by us with companionable familiarity, he never for a moment in his utmost hilarity over stepped the bounds of respectful decorum. Thus equipped and attended, we set out on our journey witfc a genuine disposition to be pleased: with such a disposition, what a country is Spain for a traveller, where the most miser- able inn is as full of adventure as an enchanted castle, and every meal is in itself, an achievement ! Let others repine at the lack of turnpike roads and sumptuous hotels, and all the elaborate comforts of a country cultivated into tameness and common-place, but give me the rude mountain scramble, the roving haphazard way-faring, the frank, hospitable, though half wild manners, that give such a true game flavour to romantic Spain! Our first evening's entertainment had a relish of the kind. We arrived after sunset at a little town among the hills, after a fatiguing journey over a wide houseless plain, where we had been repeatedly drenched with showers. In the inn were quartered a party of Miguelistas, who were patrolling the country in pursuit of robbers. The appearance of foreigners like ourselves was unusual in this remote town. Mine host with two or three old gossipping comrades in brown cloaks studied our passports in the corner of the posada, while an Alguazil took notes by the dun light of a lamp. The passports were in foreign languages and perplexed them, but our Squire Sancho assisted them in their studies, and magnified our important with the grandiloquence of a Spaniard. In the mean time the magnificent distribution of a few cigars had won the hearts of all around us. In a little while the whole community seemed put in agitation to make us welcome. The Corregidor himself waited upon us, and a great rush-bottomed armed chair was ostentatiously bolstered into our room by our landlady, for the accommodation of that important personage. The com mander of the patrol took supper with us : a surly, talking, laughing, swaggering Andaluz, who had made a campaign in South America, and recounted his exploits in love and war with much pomp of praise and vehemence of gesticulation, and mysterious rolling of the eye. He told us he had a list of all the robbers in the country, and meant to ferret out every mother's son of them ; he offered us at the same time some of his soldiers as an escort. "One is enough to prc' 3t you. THE JOURNEY. 13 Signers ; the robbers know me, and know my men ; the sight of one is enough to spread terror through a whole sierra." We thanked him for his offer, but assured him, in his own strain, that with the protection of our redoubtable Squire Sancho, we were not afraid of all the ladrones of Andalusia. While we were supping with our Andalusian friend, we heard the notes of a guitar and the click of castanets, and presently, a chorus of voices, singing a popular air. In fact, mine host had gathered together the amateur singers and musicians and the rustic belles of the neighbourhood, and on going forth, the court-yard of the inn presented a scene of true Spanish festivity. We took our seats with mine host and hostess and the commander of the patrol, under the archway of the court. The guitar passed from hand to hand, but a jovial shoemaker was the Orpheus of the place. He was a pleasant looking fellow with huge black whiskers and a roguish eye. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows; he touched the guitar with masterly skill, and sang little amorous ditties with an expressive leer at the women, with whom he was evidently a favourite. He afterwards danced a fandango with a buxom Andalusian damsel, to the great delight of the spectators. But none of the females present could compare with mine host's pretty daughter Josefa, who had slipped away and made her toilette for the occasion, and had adorned her head with roses ; and also distinguished herself in a bolero with a handsome young dragoon. We had ordered our host to let wine and refreshments circulate freely among the company, yet, though there was a motley assemblage of soldiers, muleteers and villagers, no one exceeded the bounds of sober enjoyment. The scene was a study for a painter : the picturesque group of dancers; the troopers in their half mili- pary dresses, the peasantry wrapped in their brown cloaks, nor must I omit to mention the old meagre Alguazil in a short black cloak, who took no notice of any thing going on, but sat in a corner diligently writing by the dim light of a huge copper lamp that might have figured in the days of Don Quixote. I am not writing a regular narrative, and do not pretend to give the varied events of several days' rambling over bill and dale, and moor and mountain. We travelled in true contra- Dandista style, taking every thing, rough and smooth, as we found it. and mingling wifh all classes and conditions in a