Before entering into the renaissance period, I must mention some remarkable specimens which have reached us, the work of the Spanish Arabs. Probably the most ancient and interesting is a sculpture representing a stag, now at the Provincial Museum of Cordova, which evidently belonged to a fountain. It was found in the ruins of the palace of Medina Az Zahra, the construction of which corresponds to the time of Abd er Rahman III., (961); it is undoubtedly work of this period, and probably belonged to this palace, so celebrated by Oriental writers. The fragments of a bronze fountain and several lamps, at the Museum of Granada, are of a later date; they were found in the excavations of the early city of Illiberis, which was abandoned in the 11th century, when its inhabitants chose the present site of Granada. The fragments, which are supposed to have belonged originally to a fountain, consist of a small temple 22 inches high, of an hexagonal base, with twelve small columns supporting bands of open work, frescoes, cupola, and turrets: in the angles are birds. There are six lamps, all of which are mutilated and incomplete; their form and object is indicated by the remains of chains which suspended them. Some of them are half melted, giving testimony to the conflagration which the mosque suffered in the time of the Arabs. Other bronze fragments have been found in the same locality. All these objects are artistic in their general lines, but the workmanship is indifferent, and the ornamentation heavy and coarse. A bronze lion and a mortar, found some years since in the province of Palencia, are more artistic in form and general details. The mortar was found near Monzon, and the lion not far from it. Remains still exist of a castle, which was founded by the Arabs, in the locality, and which at the beginning of the 11th century was in the hands of the Christians; it is highly probable that these objects belonged to its Moorish inhabitants. If we take into account how frequently we find Oriental remains in this locality, both these objects may be safely classified as belonging to the 10th century, although there are details in their ornamentation which appear rather to be of a later period. The lion is 12½ inches high by 14½ inches long; an aperture in the lower part which communicates with the mouth of the animal, appears to suggest that it belonged to a fountain, the water of which issued, or not, owing to the movement of the tail, which rotates and acts as a key. The shape of this lion recalls those at the Alhambra; its forms are stiff and angular, in the conventional Oriental manner of reproducing animated beings. The surface is covered with ornamentation, the mane is arranged in mannered and symmetrical curls, like those so common in Assyrian sculptures. On the back and two sides is the following inscription in Cufic characters: [Illustration: Arabic "Perfect blessing. Complete happiness."]