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SEVILLE 27
in the human body. The hills were cut open and their
precious minerals taken out; silkworms were bred; ex-
cellent universities were established; and the luxurious
imagination of thé Oriental fertilized the soil for the
miraculous fairy-tale castles which shot into the air:
the Alhambra, the Alcazar, the mosques of Cérdoba
and Seville.
Even merry Seville began to work in a sudden spurt
of industry; it worked with gold and laces and silks.
The silk industry alone is said to have employed
150,000 persons. From the mouth of the Guadal-
quivir, trading ships sailed forth, bringing to a Europe
in darkness the tidings of Andalusia, a land of light,
where industry, learning and tolerance prevailed;
where Jews, Christians and Moors lived side by side
in harmony.
But Moorish rule disappeared from Europe, leaving
no more trace behind than a fair dream might leave.
Seville shook off its enterprise like a nightmare,
stripping itself in a trice of the effects of six-and-one-
half centuries of civilization, and again proceeded to
celebrate its feast days.
The Alcazar and La Giralda still stand; so do some
of the Moorish walls which then encircled the city.
The streets still have an oriental narrowness and their
general direction is perpendicular to that of the sun.
The houses are plastered white and are shut in, with
cool yards growing narrower at the top in order to
shut out the sun’s rays.
But the Sevillano himself reminds one in no way of
the Moors, neither of the active, highly-cultivated
Moors of the Middle Ages, nor of their present-day
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