I am acquainted with that raven, and owe to him a
great part of the knowledge I possess. The magician is since dead, but
the raven still inhabits the tower, for these birds are of wonderful
long life. I would advise you, O prince, to seek that raven, for he is
a soothsayer and a conjurer, and deals in the black art, for which all
ravens, and especially those of Egypt, are renowned."
The prince was struck with the wisdom of this advice, and
accordingly bent his course towards Seville. He travelled only in
the night, to accommodate his companion, and lay by during the day
in some dark cavern or mouldering watchtower, for the owl knew every
hiding hole of the kind, and had a most antiquarian taste for ruins.
At length one morning at daybreak they reached the city of
Seville, where the owl, who hated the glare and bustle of crowded
streets, halted without the gate, and took up his quarters in a hollow
tree.
The prince entered the gate, and readily found the magic tower,
which rose above the houses of the city, as a palm-tree rises above
the shrubs of the desert; it was in fact the same tower standing at
the present day, and known as the Giralda, the famous Moorish tower of
Seville.
The prince ascended by a great winding staircase to the summit of
the tower, where he found the cabalistic raven, an old, mysterious,
gray-headed bird, ragged in feather, with a film over one eye that
gave him the glare of a spectre.
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