The Alhambra of course, from the peculiar circumstances of its
history, is a strong-hold for popular fictions of the kind; and
various relics, digged up from time to time, have contributed to
strengthen them. At one time an earthen vessel was found containing
Moorish coins and the skeleton of a cock, which, according to the
opinion of certain shrewd inspectors, must have been buried alive.
At another time a vessel was dug up containing a great scarabaeus or
beetle of baked clay, covered with Arabic inscriptions, which was
pronounced a prodigious amulet of occult virtues. In this way the wits
of the ragged brood who inhabit the Alhambra have been set
wool-gathering, until there is not a hall, nor tower, nor vault, of
the old fortress, that has not been made the scene of some
marvellous tradition. Having, I trust, in the preceding papers made
the reader in some degree familiar with the localities of the
Alhambra, I shall now launch out more largely into the wonderful
legends connected with it, and which I have diligently wrought into
shape and form, from various legendary scraps and hints picked up in
the course of my perambulations; in the same manner, that an antiquary
works out a regular historical document from a few scattered letters
of an almost defaced inscription.
If any thing in these legends should shock the faith of the
over-scrupulous reader, he must remember the nature of the place,
and make due allowances.
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