heir own features, as is proved by
specimens still existing in the collections of the curious. On one
side of these was represented the head of the reigning caliph, and on
the other appeared his name, with some passages from the Alcoran. In
the palaces of Bagdad, Cordova and Grenada, figures of animals, and
sculpture of various kinds, both in gold and marble, abounded.

{214}

H, page 69.

_The richest and most powerful, &c._

Some conception of the opulence of the caliphs of the West, during the
palmy days of their prosperity, may be formed from the value of the
gifts presented to Abderamus III. by one of his subjects,
Abdoumalek-ben-Chien, on the occasion of his being appointed to the
dignity of chief vizier. The articles composing this present are thus
enumerated: Four hundred pounds of virgin gold; four hundred and twenty
thousand sequins, in the form of ingots of silver; four hundred and
twenty pounds of the wood of aloes; five hundred ounces of ambergris;
three hundred ounces of camphor; thirty pieces of silk and cloth of
gold; ten robes of the sable fur of Korassan; one hundred others, of
less valuable fur; forty-eight flowing housings for steeds; a thousand
bucklers; a hundred thousand arrows; gold tissues, from Bagdad; four
thousand pounds of silk; thirty Persian carpets; eight hundred suits of
armour for war horses; fifteen Arabian coursers for the caliph; a
hundred for the use of his officers; twenty mules, saddled and
caparisoned; forty youths and twenty young maidens, of rare beauty.

I, page 81.

About this time occurred the famous adventure of the seven sons of
Lara, so celebrated in Spanish history and romance, and of which, as in
some degree connected with Moorish history, we may briefly narrate the
particulars.

These young warriors were brothers, the sons of Gonzalvo Gustos, a near
relative of the first counts of Castile, and lords of Salas de Lara.
Ruy Velasquez, brother-in-law of Gonzalvo Gustos, instigated by his
wife, who pretended to {215} have some cause of offence against the
youngest of the seven brothers, meditated the execution of a horrible
scheme for their destruction. Ho commenced by sending their father
Gonzalvo on an embassy to the court of Cordova, making him, at the same
time, the bearer of letters, in which he prayed the caliph to put the
envoy to death, as the enemy of the crescent and its followers. The
Mussulman sovereign, being unwilling to commit so barbarous a