THE ALHAMBRA 45 



blue and gold enamelled escutcheons bearing an 

 Arabic motto on a bend. 



In the centre of the court is the fountain from 

 which it derives its name. This is composed of 

 two basins (in Moorish times there was but one) 

 supported by twelve marble lions. These Arabian 

 sculptures, remarks Ford, are rudely but heraldi- 

 cally carved, and closely resemble those to be seen 

 supporting Norman- Saracenic tombs in Apulia 

 and Calabria. " Their faces are barbecued, 

 and their manes cut like the scales of a griffin, 

 and their legs like bedposts, while a water-pipe 

 stuck in their mouths does not add to their 

 dignity." Indeed, the consolatory reminder con- 

 tained in the tremendously long inscription round 

 the basin, that there is nothing to be feared from 

 these creatures, for " life is wanting to enable them 

 to show their fury," seems ludicrously unneces- 

 sary. As specimens of Arabian sculpture they 

 are in all probability unique ; the builders of 

 the Alhambra were evidently not over-strict 

 in the observance of their religion. The inscrip- 

 tion referred to has been versified by Valera, 

 and runs into forty-four lines of Castilian. 



On the south side of the Patio de los Leones 

 is the Sala de los Abencerrages (Hall of the Beni 

 Serraj), so called because it is believed to be the 

 scene of the massacre of thirty-six chiefs of that 

 tribe by order of Boabdil. A reddish vein in 



