In a
little while, black clouds overshadowed the heavens and burst forth
with a deluge of rain. Torrents came roaring down from the
mountains, bringing with them rocks and trees; the Darro overflowed
its banks; mills were swept away; bridges destroyed, gardens laid
waste; the inundation rushed into the city, undermining houses,
drowning their inhabitants, and overflowing even the square of the
Great Mosque. The people rushed in affright to the mosques to
implore the mercy of Allah, regarding this uproar of the elements as
the harbinger of dreadful calamities; and, indeed, according to the
Arabian historian, Al Makkari, it was but a type and prelude of the
direful war which ended in the downfall of the Moslem kingdom of
Granada.
I have thus given historic authorities, sufficient to show the
portentous mysteries connected with the House of the Weathercock,
and its talismanic horseman.
I now proceed to relate still more surprising things about Aben
Habuz and his palace; for the truth of which, should any doubt be
entertained, I refer the dubious reader to Mateo Ximenes and his
fellow-historiographers of the Alhambra.
Legend of the Arabian Astrologer.
IN OLD times, many hundred years ago, there was a Moorish king named
Aben Habuz, who reigned over the kingdom of Granada. He was a
retired conqueror, that is to say, one who having in his more youthful
days led a life of constant foray and depredation, now that he was
grown feeble and superannuated, "languished for repose," and desired
nothing more than to live at peace with all the world, to husband
his laurels, and to enjoy in quiet the possessions he had wrested from
his neighbors.
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