the Two Sisters was
originally a bedroom. The entrance is one of the most elaborate in the
palace, and its wooden ceiling, pieced to resemble stalactites, is a
charming piece of work, as also are those of the other important rooms
of the palace.

Another apartment opening out of the Court of Lions, known as the Hall
of Justice--most likely in error--contains one of the most curious
remains in the palace, another departure from the precepts of the
religion professed by its builders. This is no less than a series of
pictures painted on skins sewn together, glued and fastened to the
wooden dome with tinned tacks, and covered with a fine coating of
gypsum, the gilt parts being in relief. Though the date of their
execution must have been in the fourteenth century, the colours are
still clear and fresh. The picture in the centre of the three domes is
supposed by some to represent ten Moorish kings of Granada, though it
is more likely meant for ten wise men in council. On the other two
ceilings are pictures, one of a lady holding a chained lion, on the
point of being delivered from a man in skins by a European, who is
afterwards slain by a mounted Moor. The other is of a boar-hunt and
people drinking at a fountain, with a man up a tree in a dress which
looks remarkably like that of the eighteenth century in England, wig
and all. This work must have been that of some Christian renegade,
though considerable discussion has taken place over the authorship.
It is most likely that the lions are of similar origin, sculptured by
some one who had but a remote idea of the king of the forest.

After the group of apartments surrounding the Court of the Lions, the
most valuable specimen of Moorish architecture is that known as the
Hall of the Ambassadors, probably once devoted to official interviews,
as its name denotes. This is the largest room in the palace, occupying
the upper floor in one of the massive towers which defended the
citadel, overlooking the Vega and the remains of the camp-town
of Santa Fe, built during the siege by the "Catholic Kings." The
thickness of its walls is therefore immense, and the windows look like
little tunnels; under it are dungeons. The hall is thirty-seven feet
square, and no less than seventy-five feet high in the centre of the
roof, which is not the original one. Some of the finest stucco wall
decoration in the place is to be seen here, with elegant Arabic
inscriptions, in the ancient style of ornamen