1821 Constitutional Alcalde of Aldeire, might very well be the descendant
of some Mustapha, Mohammed, or the like.

It is related, then, that the aforesaid Juan Gomez--a man at the time of
our story about fifty years of age, very shrewd, although he knew neither
how to read nor write, and grasping and industrious to some purpose, as
might be inferred not only from his sobriquet, but also from his wealth,
acquired honestly or otherwise, and invested in the most fertile lands of
the district--leased, at a nominal rent, by means of a present to the
secretary of the corporation of some hens which had left off laying, a
piece of arid town land, on which stood an old ruin, formerly a Moorish
watch-tower or hermitage, and still called the Moor's Tower.

Needless to say that Uncle Hormiga did not stop to consider for an instant
who this Moor might be, nor what might have been the original purpose of
the ruined building; the one thing which he saw at once, clear as water,
was, that with the stones which had already fallen from the ruin and those
which he should remove from it, he might make a secure and commodious yard
for his cattle; consequently, on the very day after it came into his
possession, and as a suitable pastime for a man of his thrifty habits, he
began to devote his leisure hours to the task of pulling down what still
remained standing of the ruin.

"You will kill yourself," said his wife, seeing him come home in the
evening, covered with dust and sweat and carrying his crowbar hidden under
his cloak.

"On the contrary," he answered, "this exercise is good for me; it will put
my blood in motion and keep me from being like our sons, the students who,
according to what the storekeeper tells me, were at the theatre in Granada