d their nests,
storks make yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, halcyons carry the souls of the
faithful to Paradise. Thus he protects and feeds them, through a
sentiment of gratitude and piety; and they enliven the house, the sea,
and the sepulchre. Every quarter of Stamboul is full of the noise of
them, bringing to the city a sense of the pleasures of country life, and
continually refreshing the soul with a reminder of nature.

CORDOVA

From 'Spain'

For a long distance the country offers no new aspect to the feverish
curiosity of the tourist. At Vilches there is a vast plain, and beyond
there the open country of Tolosa, where Alphonso VIII., King of Castile,
gained the celebrated victory "de las Navas" over the Mussulman army.
The sky was very clear, and in the distance one could see the mountains
of the Sierra de Segura. Suddenly, there comes over one a sensation
which seems to respond to a suppressed exclamation of surprise: the
first aloes with their thick leaves, the unexpected heralds of tropical
vegetation, rise on both sides of the road. Beyond, the fields studded
with flowers begin to appear. The first are studded, those which follow
almost covered, then come vast stretches of ground entirely clothed with
poppies, daisies, lilies, wild mushrooms, and ranunculuses, so that the
country (as it presents itself to view) looks like a succession of
immense purple, gold, and snowy-hued carpets. In the distance, among the
trees, are innumerable blue, white, and yellow streaks, as far as the
eye can reach; and nearer, on the banks of the ditches, the elevations
of ground, the slopes, and even on the edge of the road are flowers in
beds, clumps, and clusters, one above the other, grouped in the form of
great bouquets, and trembling on their stalks, which one can almost
touch with his hand. Then there are fields white with great blades of
grain, flanked by plantations of roses, orange groves, immense olive
groves, and hillsides varied by a thousand shades of green, surmounted
by ancient Moorish towers, scattered with many-colored houses; and
between the one and the other are white and slender bridges that cross
rivulets hidden by the trees.

On the horizon appear the snowy caps of the Sierra Nevada; under that
white streak lie the undulating blue ones of the nearer mountains. The
country becomes more varied and flourishing; Arjonilla lies in a grove
of olives, whose boundary one cannot see; Pedro Abad, in the midst of a
p