s occasions. Among
others, governors of provinces, on their nomination, seldom neglected
this practical demonstration of gratitude. This practice is to this day
observed at the court of the Turkish Sultan, and serves to swell the
treasury in no small degree. Abderahman the Third, having granted a
government to the brother of his favourite, Ahmed ben Sayd, the two
brothers joined purses, and offered a present made up of the following
articles--accompanied by delicate and ingenious compliments in verse,
for the composition of which they employed the most popular poet of the
day:--Four hundred pounds weight of pure gold; forty thousand sequins in
ingots of silver; four hundred pounds of aloes; five hundred ounces of
amber; three hundred ounces of camphor; thirty pieces of tissue of gold
and silk; a hundred and ten fine furs of Khorasan; forty-eight
caparisons of gold and silk, woven at Bagdad; four thousand pounds of
silk in balls; thirty Persian carpets; eight hundred suits of armour; a
thousand shields; a hundred thousand arrows; fifteen Arabian, and a
hundred Spanish horses, with their trappings and equipments; sixty young
slaves--forty male, and twenty female.

The palace near Cordova, erected by this sovereign, was called Azarah
(the Flower) after the name of his favourite mistress. Its materials
consisted entirely of marble and cedar wood; and it contained four
thousand three hundred columns. It was sufficiently spacious to lodge
the whole court, besides a guard of cavalry. The gardens, as was usual
with the Arabs, formed the part of the residence on which were lavished
the greatest treasures of wealth, and the choicest inventions of taste.
The fountains were endless in number and variety. On one of the most
picturesque spots was situated an edifice called the Caliph's Pavilion.
It consisted of a circular gallery of white marble columns with gilded
capitals; in the centre rose a fountain of quicksilver, imitating all
the movements of water, and glittering in the sun with a brightness too
dazzling for the eye to support. Several of the saloons of this palace
were ornamented with fountains. In one, which bore the name of the
Caliph's Saloon, a fountain of jasper contained in the centre a golden
swan of beautiful workmanship--and over it hung from the ceiling a
pearl, which had been sent from Constantinople as a present from the
Greek Emperor to Abderahman. The mosque of this palace surpassed in
riches, although not in