so before each of the three doors apiece
of the long narrow Moorish rooms, and under the two porticoes. The
overflows, instead of being hidden pipes, are channels in the marble
pavement, for the Moors were too great lovers of rippling water to
lose the opportunity as we cold-blooded northerners would.

To fully realize the delights of such a place one must imagine it
carpeted with the products of Rabat, surrounded by soft mattresses
piled with cushions, and with its walls hung with a dado of
dark-coloured felt cloths of various colours, interworked to represent
pillars and arches such as surround the gallery, and showing up the
beautiful white of the marble by contrast. Thus furnished--in true
Moorish style--the place should be visited on a hot summer's day,
after a wearisome toil up the hill from the town. Then, lolling among
the cushions, and listening to the splashing water, if strong sympathy
is not felt with the builders of the palace, who thought it a
paradise, the visitor ought never to have left his armchair by the
fire-side at home.

If, instead of wasting money on re-plastering the walls until they
look ready for papering, and then scratching geometrical designs upon
them in a style no Moor ever dreamed of, the Spanish Government would
entrust a Moor of taste to decorate it in his own native style,
without the modern European additions, they would do far better and
spend less. One step further, and the introduction of Moorish guides
and caretakers who spoke Spanish--easy to obtain--would add fifty
per cent. to the interest of the place. Then fancy the Christian and
Muslim knights meeting in single combat on the plains beneath those
walls. People once more the knolls and pastures with the turban and
the helm, fill in the colours of robe and plume; oh, what a picture it
would make!

Doubtless similar apartments for the hareem exist in the recesses of
the palaces of Fez, Mequinez, Marrakesh and Rabat. Some very fine work
is to be seen in the comparatively public parts, in many respects
equalling this, and certainly better than that of the palace of
Seville. Various alterations and "restorations" have been effected
from time to time in this as in other parts of the palace, notably in
the fountain, the top part of which is modern. It is probable that
originally there was only one basin, resting immediately on the
"lions" below. Its date is given as 1477 A.D.

The room known for disputed reasons as the Hall of