The names of families also
are frequently of Arabic origin, as, for instance, Alarcos
(Er-Rakkas--"the courier"), Alhama, etc., most of which are to be met
with more in the country than in the towns, while very many others,
little suspected as such, are Jewish. Although when the most
remarkable of nations was persecuted and finally expelled from Spain,
a far larger proportion nobly sacrificed their all rather than accept
the bauble religion offered them by "The Catholic Kings" (King and
Queen), they also have left their mark, and many a noble family could,
if it would, trace its descent from the Jews. Some of their synagogues
are yet standing, notably at Toledo--whence the many Toledanos,--built
by Samuel Levy, who was secretary to Don Pedro the Cruel. This was in
1336, a century and a half before the Moors were even conquered, much
less expelled, and if the sons of Ishmael have left their mark
upon that sunny land, so have the sons of Israel, though in a
far different manner. Morocco has ever since been the home of the
descendants of a large proportion of the exiles.

The Spanish physiognomy, not so much of the lower as of the upper
classes, is strikingly similar to that of the mountaineers of Morocco,
and these include some of the finest specimens. The Moors of to-day
are of too mingled a descent to present any one distinct type of
countenance, and it is the same with the Spaniards. So much of the
blood of each flows in the veins of the other, that comparison is
rendered more difficult. It is a well-known fact that several of the
most ancient families in the kingdom can trace their descent from
Mohammedans. A leading instance of this is the house of Mondejar,
lords of Granada from the time of its conquest, as the then head of
the house, Sidi Yahia, otherwise Don Pedro de Granada, had become a
Christian. In the Generalife at that town, still in the custody of the
same family, is a genealogical tree tracing its origin right back to
the Goths![26]

[26: Andalucia is but a corruption of Vandalucia.]

Next to physiognomy come habits and customs, and of these there are
many which have been borrowed, or rather retained, from the Moors,
especially in the country. The ploughs, the water-mills, the
water-wheels, the irrigation, the treading out of the corn, the
weaving of coarse cloth, and many other daily sights, from their
almost complete similarity, remind one of Morocco. The bread-shops
they call "tahonas," unaware t