In those of Moorish technique but
Western pattern, the most usual colours are blue, green, yellow and,
more rarely, brown.

Later still in the flat tiles scarcely anything but blue and yellow are
used, though the blue and the yellow may be of two shades, light and
dark, golden and orange. Brown and green have almost disappeared, and,
as was said above, so did yellow at last, leaving nothing but blue and
white.

Although there are few buildings which do not possess some tiles, the
oldest, those of Moorish design, are rare, and, the best collection is
to be found in the old palace at Cintra, of which the greater part was
built by Dom Joao I. towards the end of the fourteenth and the beginning
of the fifteenth century.

Formerly all the piers of the old cathedral of Coimbra were covered with
such tiles, but they have lately been swept away, and only those left
which line the aisle walls.

At Cintra there are a few which it is supposed may have belonged to the
palace of the Walis, or perhaps it would be safer to say to the palace
before it was rebuilt by Dom Joao. These are found round a door leading
out of a small room, called from the mermaids on the ceiling the _Sala
das Sereias_. The pointed door is enclosed in a square frame by a band
of narrow dark and light tiles with white squares between, arranged in
checks, while in the spandrels is a very beautiful arabesque pattern in
black on a white ground.

Of slightly later date are the azulejos of the so-called _Sala dos
Arabes_, where the walls to a height of about six feet are lined with
blue, green, and white tiles, the green being square and the other
rhomboidal. Over the doors, which are pointed, a square framing is
carried up, with tiles of various patterns in the spandrels, and above
these frames, as round the whole walls, runs a very beautiful cresting
two tiles high. On the lower row are interlacing semicircles in high
relief forming foliated cusps and painted blue. In the spandrels formed
by the interlacing of the semicircles are three green leaves growing out
from a brown flower; in short the design is exactly like a Gothic
corbel table such as was used on Dom Joao's church at Batalha turned
upside down, and so probably dates from his time. On the second row of
tiles there are alternately a tall blue fleur-de-lys with a yellow
centre, and a lower bunch of leaves, three blue at the top and one
yellow on each side; the ground throughout is white. (Fig. 8.)