Abou-Kizeb Again 



whom I presented a cigar. After a while Casta came to 

 say the mules were ready, and we set off, accompanied by 

 the old posadero and Facunda's father. 



Riding along the valley, we came to a zig-zag path, by 

 which we ascended the mountain. Facunda's father 

 attended me. He was a striking, picturesque man, with 

 long black hair curling down to his shoulders. A broad 

 and nobly-cut brow, fringed with shaggy eyebrows, 

 overhung serious, deep-set eyes. He was dressed in black 

 sheepskin. Altogether his appearance was calculated 

 to produce a sensation on the Adelphi boards in the 

 character of an unfortunate monarch in the disguise of 

 a shepherd. 



I naturally supposed he would be a character of some 

 sort, and took pains to beat about for original sayings and 

 local traditions ; but I could get nothing out of him. He 

 was not sulky, but simply dull, and afforded one more 

 confirmation to the axiom, that "appearances are often 

 deceitful." 



Finding I could elicit nothing, out of benevolence to 

 future travellers who might make the same inquiries, I 

 thought fit to lay the foundations of a tradition myself. 

 So I told him that the Piedras Encantadas were mentioned 

 in an ancient manuscript. Las Cronicas de los Reyes Moros^ 

 written in the Arabic language by el sah'io Abou-kizeb. 



By this account it appeared, that a certain sultan, called 

 Faseq el Mesquin, reigned very wickedly over a tract of 

 country from Catalayud to Albacete, and from Tuejar to 

 Guadalajara. 



This malignant potentate was favoured and abetted in his 

 cruelty and crimes by certain evil spirits called chinnes and 

 afritos^ who constructed for him a magnificent city of 

 palaces and towers, and alcaxaresy with prisons and deep 



