himself "a wise king." In our days, when
every king and nearly every man thinks himself wise, such a decision would
not have deterred suitors, and she would have been compelled, in the end,
to choose among the few unwise. But wisdom, in those times of fable and
necromancy, had a wider meaning than we give it. A wise king was one who
had control of the powers of earth and air, who could call the genii to
his aid by incantations, and perform supernatural deeds. Hence it was that
the suitors fell off from the maiden like leaves from an autumn bough,
leaving but two who deemed themselves fitting aspirants to her hand.

To test the wisdom of these two she gave them the following tasks: One was
bidden to construct on the mainland an aqueduct and a water-wheel to bring
water from the mountains into Cadiz. The other was to produce a talisman
which should save the island of Cadiz from invasion by Berbers or any
other of the fierce tribes of Africa, by whom it was frequently
threatened.

"The one of you," said the princess, "who first and best performs his
task, shall win my hand by his work."

The two suitors were warmly in love with the beautiful maiden, and both
ardently entered upon their duties. The first to get to work was the
aqueduct builder, whose task called for hard labor rather than magical
aid. Cadiz stands on a long, narrow peninsula, opposite which, on the
mainland, the king built a hydraulic machine, to which the water was
brought by pipes or canals from springs in a nearby mountain. This stream
of cool, refreshing water poured upon a wheel, by which it was driven into
an aqueduct crossing the bay into Cadiz.

Here comes the fact behind the legend. Such an aqueduct stood long in
evidence, and as late as the eighteenth century traces of it could be
seen. We have an account of it by the Arab writer, Al Makkari. "It
consisted," he says, "of a long line of arches, and the way it was done
was this: whenever they came to high ground or to a mountain they cut a
passage through it; when the ground was lower, they built a bridge over
arches; if they met with a porous soil, they laid a bed of gravel for the
passage of the water; when the building reached the sea-shore, the water
was made to pass underground, and in this way it reached Cadiz." So it was
built, and "wise" was the king who built it, even if he did not call upon
the genii for assistance.

The other king could not perform his labor so simply. He had a talism