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Relics And GenealogiesRelics And Genealogies
Relics And Genealogies
If I had been pleased and interested by the count and his family, as
furnishing a picture of a Spanish domestic life, I was still more so when
apprised of historical circumstances which linked them with the heroic times
of Granada. In fact, in this worthy old cavalier, so totally unwarlike, or
whose deeds in arms extended, at most, to a war on swallows and martlets, I
discovered a lineal descendant and actual representative of Gonsalvo of
Cordova, "the Grand Captain," who won some of his brightest laurels before the
walls of Granada, and was one of the cavaliers commissioned by Ferdinand and
Isabella to negotiate the terms of surrender; nay, more, the count was
entitled, did he choose it, to claim remote affinity with some of the ancient
Moorish princes, through a scion of his house, Don Pedro Venegas, surnamed the
Tornadizo; and by the same token, his daughter, the fascinating little Carmen,
might claim to be rightful representative of the princess Cetimerien or the
beautiful Lindaraxa.
Understanding from the count that he had some curious relics of the
Conquest, preserved in his family archives, I accompanied him early one
morning down to his palace in Granada to examine them. The most important of
these relics was the sword of the Grand Captain; a weapon destitute of all
ostentatious ornament, as the weapons of great generals are apt to be, with a
plain hilt of ivory and a broad thin blade. It might furnish a comment on
hereditary honors, to see the sword of the grand captain legitimately declined
into such feeble hands.
The other relics of the Conquest were a number of espingardas or muskets
of unwieldy size and ponderous weight, worthy to rank with those enormous
two-edge swords preserved in old armories, which look like relics from the
days of the giants.
Besides other hereditary honors, I found the old count was Alferez mayor,
or grand standard-bearer, in which capacity he was entitled to bear the
ancient standard of Ferdinand and Isabella, on certain high and solemn
occasions, and to wave it over their tombs. I was shown also the caparisons of
velvet, sumptuously embroidered with gold and silver, for six horses, with
which he appeared in state when a new sovereign was to be proclaimed in
Granada and Seville; the count mounting one of the horses, and the other five
being led by lackeys in rich liveries.
I had hoped to find among the relics and antiquities of the count`s
palace, some specimens of the armor and weapons of the Moors of Granada, such
as I had heard were preserved as trophies by the descendants of the
Conquerors; but in this I was disappointed. I was the more curious in this
particular, because an erroneous idea has been entertained by many, as to the
costumes of the Moors of Spain; supposing them to be of the usual oriental
type. On the contrary, we have it on the authority of their own writers, that
they adopted in many respects the fashions of the Christians. The turban,
especially, so identified in idea with the Moslem, was generally abandoned,
except in the western provinces, where it continued in use among people of
rank and wealth, and those holding places under government. A woollen cap, red
or green, was commonly worn as a substitute; probably the same kind
originating in Barbary, and known by the name of Tunis or Fez, which at the
present day is worn throughout the east; though generally under the turban.
The Jews were obliged to wear them of a yellow color.
In Murcia, Valencia, and other eastern provinces, men of the highest rank
might be seen in public bareheaded. The warrior king, Aben Hud, never wore a
turban, neither did his rival and competitor Al Hamar, the founder of the
Alhambra. A short cloak called Taylasan similar to that seen in Spain in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was worn by all ranks. It had a hood or
cape which people of condition sometimes drew over the head; but the lower
class never.
A Moslem cavalier in the thirteenth century, as described by Ibnu Said,
was equipped for war very much in the Christian style. Over a complete suit
of mail he wore a short scarlet tunic. His helmet was of polished steel; a
shield was slung at his back; he wielded a huge spear with a broad point,
sometimes a double point. His saddle was cumbrous, projecting very much in
front and in rear, and he rode with a banner fluttering behind him.
In the time of Al Khattib of Granada, who wrote in the fourteenth
century, the Moslems of Andalus had resumed the Oriental costumes, and were
again clad and armed in Arabic fashion: with light helmet, thin but well
tempered cuirass, long slender lance, commonly of reed, Arabian saddle and
leathern buckler, made of double folds of the skin of the antelope. A
wonderful luxury prevailed at that time in the arms and equipments of the
Granadian cavaliers. Their armor was inlaid with gold and silver. Their
cimeters were of the keenest Damascus blades, with sheaths richly wrought and
enamelled, and belts of golden filagree studded with gems. Their daggers of
Fez had jewelled hilts, and their lances were set off with gay banderoles.
Their horses were caparisoned in correspondent style, with velvet and
embroidery.
All this minute description, given by a contemporary, and an author of
distinction, verifies those gallant pictures in the old Morisco Spanish
ballads which have sometimes been deemed apocryphal, and gives a vivid idea of
the brilliant appearance of the chivalry of Granada, when marshalled forth in
warlike array, or when celebrating the chivalrous fetes of the Vivarrambla.
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