" This wild and intricate country, with its silent plains and
valleys intersected by mountains, has ever been famous for banditti.
It was here that Omar Ibn Hassan, a robber-chief among the Moslems,
held ruthless sway in the ninth century, disputing dominion even
with the caliphs of Cordova. This too was a part of the regions so
often ravaged during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella by Ali
Atar, the old Moorish alcayde of Loxa, father-in-law of Boabdil, so
that it was called Ali Atar's garden, and here "Jose Maria," famous in
Spanish brigand story, had his favorite lurking places.
In the course of the day we passed through Fuente la Piedra near a
little salt lake of the same name, a beautiful sheet of water,
reflecting like a mirror the distant mountains. We now came in sight
of Antiquera, that old city of warlike reputation, lying in the lap of
the great sierra which runs through Andalusia. A noble vega spread out
before it, a picture of mild fertility set in a frame of rocky
mountains. Crossing a gentle river we approached the city between
hedges and gardens, in which nightingales were pouring forth their
evening song. About nightfall we arrived at the gates. Every thing
in this venerable city has a decidedly Spanish stamp. It lies too much
out of the frequented track of foreign travel to have its old usages
trampled out. Here I observed old men still wearing the montero, or
ancient hunting cap, once common throughout Spain; while the young men
wore the little round-crowned hat, with brim turned up all round, like
a cup turned down in its saucer, while the brim was set off with
little black tufts like cockades.
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