"Then over podded tamarinds bear their flight, While cassias blossom in the zone of calms, And so betake them to a south sea-bight

To gossip in the crowns of cocoa-palms.

"Whose roots are in the spray? Oh, haply there Some dawn, white-wingèd they might chance to find.

A frigate standing in to make more fair

The loneliness unaltered of mankind.

"A frigate come to water: nuts would fall,

And nimble feet would climb the flower-flushed

strand,

While northern talk would ring, and therewithal The martins would desire the cool north land.

"And all would be as it had been before:

Again at eve there would be news to tell;

Who passed should hear them chant it o'er and o'er, 'Gossip, how wags the world?'—'Well, gossip, well.'"

WASHINGTON IRVING

(G. P. Putnam Sons, Publishers)

WASHINGTON IRVING, born in New York, 1783, and died at Sunnyside-on-the-Hudson, 1859. His was America's greatest literary name in the earlier half of the Nineteenth Century. He first studied law, but soon turned to literature. His fame was made when in 1809 appeared "A History of New York By Diedrich Knickerbocker -one of the most successful burlesques in the language. Then followed "The Sketch Book," an assemblage of delightful stories, and pen pictures of historic places, especially in England. The account of Westminster Abbey, and of the English Christmas were very popular in England and did much to give him recognition abroad. The years spent in Great Britain were amcng the pleasantest of his life. He became a friend of Scott, and his great admiration for the "Wizard of the North" often finds expression in his writings. In 1829 he was appointed secretary to the United States Legation at Madrid. Life in Spain had a peculiar fascination for him; and all the color and romance of Moorish and Spanish romance is found in his Conquest of Granada," and "The Alhambra." Irving's "Life of Washington" will stand as his greatest historical work.

66

A MOORISH PALACE

(From "The Alhambra ")

HE Alhambra is an ancient fortress or castel

Tlated palace of the Moorish kings of Granada,

where they held dominion over this their boasted

terrestrial paradise, and made their last stand for empire in Spain. The palace occupies but a portion of the fortress; the walls of which, studded with towers, stretch irregularly round the whole crest of a lofty hill that overlooks the city, and forms a spire of the Sierra Nevada or Snowy Mountain.

In the time of the Moors the fortress was capable of containing an army of forty thousand men within its precincts, and served occasionally as a stronghold of the sovereigns against their rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had passed into the hands of the Christians, the Alhambra continued a royal demesne, and was occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs. The Emperor Charles V. began a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was deterred from completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The last royal residents were Philip V. and his beautiful Queen Elizabetta of Parma, early in the eighteenth century.

Leaving our posada of La Espada, we traversed the renowned square of the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and tournaments, now a crowded market-place. From thence we proceeded along the Zacatin, the main street of what was the great Bazaar in the time of the Moors, where the small shops and narrow alleys still retain their Oriental character. Crossing an open place in front of the palace of the captain-general, we ascended a confined and winding street, the name of which reminded us of the chivalric days of Granada. It is called the Calle, or street, of the Gomeres, from a Moorish family famous in chronicle and song. This street led up to a mansion gateway of Grecian architecture, built by Charles V., forming the

entrance to the domains of the Alhambra.

At the gate were two or three ragged and superannuated soldiers dozing on a stone bench, the succes

sors of the Zegris and the Abencerrages; while a tall meager varlet, whose rusty brown cloak was evidently intended to conceal the ragged state of his nether garments, was lounging in the sunshine, and gossiping with an ancient sentinel on duty. .

We now found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine filled with beautiful groves, with a steep avenue and various footpaths winding through it, bordered with stone seats and ornamented with fountains. To our left we beheld the towers of the Alhambra beetling above us; to our right on the opposite side of the ravine we were equally dominated by rival towers on a rocky eminence. These, we were told, were the Torres Vermejos or Vermilion Towers, so called from their ruddy hue. No one knows their origin. They are of a date much anterior to the Alhambra. Some suppose them to have been built by the Romans; others by some wandering colony of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady avenue, we arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower, forming a kind of barbican, through which passed the main entrance to the fortress. Within the barbican was another group of veteran invalids; one mounting guard at the portal, while the rest, wrapped in their tattered cloaks, slept on the stone benches. This portal is called the Gate of Justice, from the tribunal held within its porch during the Moslem denomination, for the immediate trial of petty causes; a custom common to the Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the sacred Scriptures.

The great vestibule or porch of the gate is formed by an immense Arabian arch of the horseshoe form, which springs to half the height of the tower. On the keystone of this arch is engraven a gigantic hand. Within the vestibule, on the keystone of the portal, is engraven in like manner a gigantic key. Those who pretend to some knowledge of Mahometan sym

bols affirm that the hand is the emblem of doctrine, and the key of faith; the latter, they add, was emblazoned on the standard of the Moslems when they subdued Andalusia, in opposition to the Christian emblem of the cross. . . .

After passing through the barbican we ascended a narrow lane winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade within the fortress, called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of the Cisterns, from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in the living rock by the Moors for the supply of the fortress. Here also is a well of immense depth, furnishing the purest and coldest of water,—another monument of the delicate taste of the Moors, who were indefatigable in their exertions to obtain that element in its crystal purity.

In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by Charles V., intended it is said to eclipse the residence of the Moslem kings. With all its grandeur and architectural merit, it appeared to us like an arrogant intrusion; and passing by it, we entered a simple unostentatious portal opening into the interior of the Moorish palace.

The transition was almost magical; it seemed as if we were at once transported into other times and another realm, and were treading the scenes of Arabian story. We found ourselves in a great court, paved with white marble and decorated at each end with light Moorish peristyles. It is called the Court of the Alberca. In the center was an immense basin or fish-pool, a hundred and thirty feet in length by thirty in breadth, stocked with gold-fish and bordered by hedges of roses. At the upper end of this court rose the great tower of Comares.

From the lower end we passed through a Moorish archway into the renowned Court of Lions. There is no part of the edifice that gives us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence