ame-like out of the mysterious
twilight and guarding the holy places beyond.

The choir, placed so nearly under the dome, naturally suffered greatly
by its fall. A portion of the 127 stalls has been so well restored that
it is difficult to distinguish the old from the new. "Nufro Sanchez,
sculptor, whom God guarded, made this choir in the year 1475." The
subjects are as usual from the New and Old Testaments, and the character
of the carving constantly betrays Moorish influence. The pillars as well
as the canopies and the figures themselves are possibly entirely Gothic,
but one glance at the gaudily inlaid backs shows Arab workmanship. Along
the outer sides of the choir around the four little stonework niches,
which serve as smaller chapels, the Gothic carving (some of it executed
in transparent alabaster), works more happily than usual in combination
with the later Plateresque or Renaissance, here containing the fine
feeling of the Genoese school. One piece of sculpture stands out from
all the rest, viz., the Virgin, carved by Montanes. Her hands are of
such exquisite girlish delicacy, of such immature and dimpled softness,
that one cannot pass them by without a feeling of delight.

The organs, which form a part of the choir, have an incredible number of
pipes and stops. According to a remarkable old tale, they were filled
with air by the choir boys, who walked back and forth over tilting
planks placed on the bellows. Whether or no the boys still have this
happy outlet for their ecclesiastic activities, the music means little
to the Spaniard, and their design still less to the architect's eye.

The Capilla Mayor faces the choir, merely separated from it by the space
lying directly under the dome and forming the intersection of nave and
transepts. As the church services constantly require the simultaneous
use of the choir and the high altar of the Capilla Mayor, a portion of
the intermediate space or "entre los dos Coros" is roped off during
service time for the clergy to pass from one to the other. The Spanish
taste for pomp and magnificence centres in all its extravagance about
the high altar, while a more subdued richness characterizes the
surrounding stone and iron work which encloses the sanctuary on all
sides. Not only on the front, complementing and balancing admirably the
facing reja of the choir, but on the western ends of the sides, immense
ornamental iron screens bar the way. The front one is quite overpoweri