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CORDOBA 75
the river’s edge; the sewage of the city trickles in
green slimy rills over the spotted walls; on the other
side, the bank is formed by dry sand and heaps of
garbage. The whole is a monstrous scene of gray
ennul, with an occasional picturesque ruin of a Moorish
water-mill for relief.
A splendid old Roman bridge leads down to the
city. It is the only artery of traffic that crosses the
river, and yet its heavy stone back bears no living cur-
rent of humans. It is like a fabulous gray monster
that has flung himself straight across the stream ages
ago to die in peace. In spots, the tooth of time has
gnawed a little at his loins of twenty centuries, but only
to demonstrate the dead beast’s immortality.
In all Andalusian cities, you are bound to meet the
type of cloaked Spaniard who will stand like a hermit
in the midst of bustle, leaning against a palm or a
wall, arms crossed, glances idle. You may see him
standing as you leave your house, and two or three
hours later you return to find him still in the same
position. Outwardly blasé, completely indifferent to
the affairs of practical life, he will seem to have devel-
oped in the purest form that contempt for temporal
possessions, of which every Andalusian has at least a
trace. Such types remind you vividly of the kindred
Moors of the northern cities of Morocco: the expres-
sion betrays the same descent, and in spite of the
difference in the conditions of their lives, they do tend
to revert to the Moor. Fruitless to indulge in specu-
lation as to what might not have been achieved by the
Moors had they not been driven from Spain. They
had already begun to decline and would probably have
become precisely what they are now—an extinct crater.
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