130 THE SHEEP. 



shores of Andalusia, and in one great battle, fought at Xeres, 

 decided the fate of Spain. They defeated the Christian army 

 of a hundred thousand men, and, pursuing their victory, re- 

 duced, in an incredibly short space of time, nearly all Spain 

 to the dominion of the Caliphs, leaving the vanquished in 

 possession of their laws and religion, under payment of the 

 tribute prescribed by the stern tenets of the Koran. A 

 remnant of the Goths, under their leader Pelagius, retired to 

 the mountains of the Asturias, whence they were afterwards 

 able to roll back the tide of conquest on the invaders of their 

 country. 



The Moors, as the mixed races of Arabian and African 

 conquerors were termed by the Spaniards, brought with them 

 the arts of the East to their new country, and cultivated 

 them with success during their long dominion. Although 

 their possessions were at length divided into separate states, 

 often at war with one another, and almost always with the 

 Christians in contact with them, they brought the subject 

 country to a high degree of prosperity and civilization. No 

 people ever underwent so sudden a change of character and 

 habits as the wild and fiery Arabs in the delicious country 

 which they had rendered their own. They cultivated agri- 

 culture, and brought the art of irrigation especially, to great 

 perfection. They were skilled in the useful mechanical arts, 

 and established looms, forges, glass-houses, dye-works, and 

 manufactures of silk, cotton, paper, leather, and the like, in 

 all their principal cities. They even cultivated letters and 

 the fine arts, when all the rest of Europe was sunk in dark- 

 ness. Their aqueducts, bridges, mosques, and other edifices, 

 remain to this hour the monuments of a taste, industry, and 

 skill, which their successors have never been able to equal. 

 But that of all their arts which the most interests us with 

 relation to our present subject, is their woollen manufacture. 

 They fabricated cloths and carpets, with serges, and the other 

 lighter tissues suited to the warmer countries. In the city 

 of Seville alone were many thousand looms constantly at 



