ns, lance, scimitar, and corslet of steel are
dwelt upon with enthusiasm. He is as brave as Mars, and as comely as
Adonis. Sometimes he dashes into a bull-ring and slays wild creatures in
the sight of fair ladies and envious men. He throws his lance of cane,
which is filled with sand, so high that it vanishes in the clouds. He is
ready to strike down, in his own house, the Christian who has taken from
him and wedded the lady of his choice. He is almost always in love with
some lady who is unkind and cold, and for her he wanders at times in dark
array, expressing his sombre mood in the device and motto which he paints
upon his shield. Some of the ballads picture love more fortunate in the
most charming manner, and the dark tortures of jealousy are powerfully
described in others. The devotion of the Moor to his lady is scarcely
caricatured in the mocking language of Cervantes, and is not exceeded by
anything to be found in the history of French chivalry. But the god of
these ballads is Allah, and they sometimes reveal a trace of ferocity which
seems to be derived from religious fanaticism. Nor can the reader fail to
be struck by the profound pathos which many of them express so well. The
dirges are supremely beautiful, their language simple and direct, but
perfect in descriptive touches and in the cadence of the reiterated burden.

Beside the ballads of warlike and amorous adventures, there are sea-songs,
songs of captivity, and songs of the galley slave. The Spanish Moor is
seized by some African pirate and carried away to toil in the mill of his
master on some foreign shore, or he is chained to the rowing-bench of the
Berber galley, thence to be taken and sold when the voyage is over to some
master who leaves him to weep in solitary toil in the farm or garden.
Sometimes he wins the love of his mistress, who releases him and flies in
his company.

All these ballads have vivid descriptions of scenery. The towers of Baeza,
the walls of Granada, the green _vegas_ that spread outside every
city, the valley of the Guadalquivir, and the rushing waters of the Tagus,
the high cliffs of Cadiz, the Pillars of Hercules, and the blue waves of
the Mediterranean make a life-like background to every incident. In the
cities the ladies throng the balconies of curling iron-work or crowd the
plaza where the joust or bull-fight is to be witnessed, or steal at
nightfall to the edge of the _vega_ to meet a lover, and sometimes to
die in his a