of the commonest species of the genus _Boa_ is the _Boa
constrictor_, which has a wide range from tropical Mexico to Brazil. The
head is covered with small scales, only one of the preoculars being
enlarged. The general colour is a delicate pale brown, with about a
dozen and a half darker cross-bars, which are often connected by a still
darker dorso-lateral streak, enclosing large oval spots. On each side is
a series of large dark brown spots with light centres. On the tail the
markings become bolder, brick red with black and yellow. The under parts
are yellowish with black dots. This species rarely reaches a length of
more than 10 ft. It climbs well, prefers open forest in the
neighbourhood of water, is often found in plantations where it retires
into a hole in the ground, and lives chiefly on birds and small mammals.
Like most true boas, it is of a very gentle disposition and easily
domesticates itself in the palm or reed thatched huts of the natives,
where it hunts the rats during the night.

The term "boa" is applied by analogy to a long article of women's dress
wound round the neck.

BOABDIL (a corruption of the name Abu Abdullah), the last Moorish king
of Granada, called _el chico_, the little, and also _el zogoybi_, the
unfortunate. A son of Muley Abu'l Hassan, king of Granada, he was
proclaimed king in 1482 in place of his father, who was driven from the
land. Boabdil soon after sought to gain prestige by invading Castile. He
was taken prisoner at Lucena in 1483, and only obtained his freedom by
consenting to hold Granada as a tributary kingdom under Ferdinand and
Isabella, king and queen of Castile and Aragon. The next few years were
consumed in struggles with his father and his uncle Abdullah ez Zagal.
In 1491 Boabdil was summoned by Ferdinand and Isabella to surrender the
city of Granada, and on his refusal it was besieged by the Castilians.
Eventually, in January 1492, Granada was surrendered, and the king spent
some time on the lands which he was allowed to hold in Andalusia.
Subsequently he crossed to Africa, and is said to have been killed in
battle fighting for his kinsman, the ruler of Fez. The spot from which
Boabdil looked for the last time on Granada is still shown, and is known
as "the last sigh of the Moor" (_el ultimo suspire del Moro_).

See J.A. Conde, _Dominacion de los Arabes en Espana_ (Paris, 1840),
translated into English by Mrs J. Foster (London, 1854-1855);
Washington Irving,