nside all is
different. Instead of crumbling red walls, the courts and apartments
are highly ornamented with what we now call plaster-of-Paris, but
which the Moors have long prepared by roasting the gypsum in rude
kilns, calling it "gibs."

A full description of each room or court-yard would better become a
guide-book, and to those who have the opportunity of visiting the
spot, I would recommend Ford's incomparable "Handbook to Spain,"
published by Murray, the older the edition the better. To those who
can read Spanish, the "Estudio descriptivo de los Monumentos arabes,"
by the late Sr. Contreras (Government restorer of the Moorish remains
in Spain), to be obtained in Granada, is well worth reading.
Such information as a visitor would need to correct the mistaken
impressions of these and other writers ignorant of Moorish usages as
to the original purpose of the various apartments, I have embodied in
Macmillan's "Guide to the Western Mediterranean."

Certain points, however, either for their architectural merit or
historic interest, cannot be passed over. Such is the Court of the
Lions, of part of which a model disfigured by garish painting may be
seen at the Crystal Palace. In some points it is resembled by the
chief court of the mosque of the Karueein at Fez. In the centre is
that strange departure from the injunctions of the Koran which has
given its name to the spot, the alabaster fountain resting on the
loins of twelve beasts, called, by courtesy, "lions." They remind one
rather of cats. "Their faces barbecued, and their manes cut like the
scales of a griffin, and the legs like bed-posts; a water-pipe stuck
in their mouths does not add to their dignity." In the inscription
round the basin above, among flowery phrases belauding the fountain,
and suggesting that the work is so fine that it is difficult to
distinguish the water from the alabaster, the spectator is comforted
with the assurance that they cannot bite!

The court is surrounded by the usual tiled verandah, supported by one
hundred and twenty-two light and elegant white marble pillars, the
arches between which show some eleven different forms. At each end is
a portico jutting out from the verandahs, and four cupolas add to the
appearance of the roofs. The length of the court is twice its width,
which is sixty feet, and on each side lies a beautiful decorated
apartment with the unusual additions of jets of water from the floor
in the centre of each, as al