Some destroy the romance of the name by attributing it to
two enormous slabs of alabaster which lie side by side, and form a
great part of the pavement; an opinion strongly supported by Mateo
Ximenes. Others are disposed to give the name a more poetical
significance, as the vague memorial of Moorish beauties who once
graced this hall, which was evidently a part of the royal harem.
This opinion I was happy to find entertained by our little bright-eyed
guide, Dolores, who pointed to a balcony over an inner porch, which
gallery, she had been told, belonged to the women's apartment. "You
see, senor," said she, "it is all grated and latticed, like the
gallery in a convent chapel where the nuns hear mass; for the
Moorish kings," added she, indignantly, "shut up their wives just like
nuns."
The latticed "jalousies," in fact, still remain, whence the
dark-eyed beauties of the harem might gaze unseen upon the zambras and
other dances and entertainments of the hall below.
On each side of this hall are recesses or alcoves for ottomans and
couches, on which the voluptuous lords of the Alhambra indulged in
that dreamy repose so dear to the Orientalists. A cupola or lantern
admits a tempered light from above and a free circulation of air;
while on one side is heard the refreshing sound of waters from the
fountain of the lions, and on the other side the soft plash from the
basin in the garden of Lindaraxa.
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