[103] “Gerone qui ferrum gelat.” This river, the purity and coldness of whose waters lent, or so it is supposed, its virtues to the steel, rolls past the walls of Calatayud, and is called in later ages the Jalon.
[104] “Imo Toletano præcingant ilia cultro.”
[105] “Romani patriis gladiis depositis Hannibalico bello Hispaniensium assumpserunt … sed ferri bonitatem et fabrica solertiam imitari non potuerunt.”—Suidas.
[106] Descripciones de las Islas Pithiusas y Baleares. Madrid, 1787.
[107] A javelin made throughout of iron was found in Spain some years ago, completely doubled up, so as to admit of its being thrust into a burial urn. The javelin in question is now in the Madrid museum, and a similar weapon may be seen in the provincial museum of Granada.
[108] Historia General del Arte: García Llansó; Armas, pp. 439, 440.
[109] The horse was also covered with a lóriga, on which, from about the twelfth century, were thrown the decorative trappings of cendal or thin silk, painted or embroidered with the warrior's arms.
“Calzó las brafoneras que eran bien obradas
Con sortijas de acero, sabet bien enlazadas;
Asi eran presas é bien trabadas,
Que semejaban calzas de las tiendas taiadas.”
Poem of the Cid.