Legend

Moors of A Limia: treasures, broken secrets and enchantments

The legends of Moorish men and women in A Limia: the mouras of Treboal, the Covelas mine, the gold cart of A Touza, the Moors' girl, the Casa da Moura of Calvos de Randín and the treasures that vanish when the secret is broken.

Throughout Galicia the mouros and mouras (enchanted "Moors") are magical beings who guard treasure in crags, castles, springs and tunnels. In A Limia the most repeated legends share a rule: the moura’s treasure or gift is only worth anything if the secret is kept; when it is broken, it vanishes, or something worse happens ^[1]. This page retells, with all their steps, the legends collected by informants in the concellos of Os Blancos, Calvos de Randín and Xinzo de Limia.

The mouras of Treboal ("Mariquiña, Maricola")

On the crags of Treboal, in Covelas (Os Blancos), some mouras lived. One day they called María, a girl who was out on the hill with the livestock, and gave her a basket of beans that would turn to gold if she did not tell her mother; if she did, they would kill her. María promised to say nothing, took the basket home and put it on top of a chest. Her mother wondered: "What are you carrying?" "I can’t tell you." "Either you give me the basket or I’ll give you a beating!" María ended up handing over the basket and, of course, the beans stayed beans. The next day she went back to the hill; the mouras called her and killed her. When her mother and the neighbours went looking for her, one of the mouras answered: "Mariquiña, Maricola, / con aceite e allo / metida na barrigola!" (Mariquiña, Maricola, with oil and garlic, tucked in my belly). It was collected by Manuel Jardón Moure in January 1994 ^[2].

The cycle of the man-eating moura, who kills and eats girls who break the secret, recurs in Sandiás with the same refrain ("María, Mariola, fried in oil, goes into my belly") and elsewhere, and in A Limia with variations of the name: "Maruja, Marujón", "Marta, Martola" ^[1]^[7].

Sausages in the Moors’ mine

In Covelas there is a Moors’ mine running from Nocedo to Valdarca. A man went into it looking for the gold the Moors were said to guard, but could not find his way out and the neighbours had to go and fetch him. He said he had found no gold, but sausages "and everything" ^[3].

The gold cart of A Touza

At A Touza (Covelas) there was a gold cart that could only be pulled out by reading a great deal without stopping. One night the grandfather of a certain Roque went to the place and began to read. He read and read; a huge tremor was felt, the ground sank and the cart’s shafts, which were of gold, even came out. But suddenly the man could read no more and everything sank. It is of the same family as the treasures disenchanted with the book of Saint Cyprian, the Ciprianillo ^[4].

The Moors’ girl and the little Moor of Monte do Castelo

The blog As tradicións da Limia collected in 1995 and 2002 three tales of Moors at Monte do Castelo, "where the aerials are". In the first, a girl who took the livestock to the hill was looked after by the Moors, who fed her and combed her hair on condition that she did not tell. Her mother grew suspicious and made her tell the truth; the next day the girl did not return and, when they called her, a voice from the depths of the earth answered: "Maruja, Marujón is in my stew pot" ^[6]. In the second, a moura gave birth in the castle and the Moor went down to the village to find a young woman to nurse the baby; as he left he put some coals in her skirt pocket, which she threw away on the road as a stingy gift; at home two coins fell out, which were the coals transformed, and she could not find the others ^[6]. The author says it is the only tale he knows in which the Moors need a wet nurse from the village ^[6].

The Casa da Moura of Calvos de Randín ("Falaches, corneaches")

At the Casa da Moura, a megalithic monument in Calvos de Randín, a poor man going early one morning to the sweet fair to buy piglets met a Moor (in other versions, a moura; or the protagonist is a girl). The Moor asked him whether he had money to buy them and the poor man said little. The Moor told him to buy two of the best pigs and wait for him there with the seller, who would then be paid. So it was: the Moor kept one pig and the man the other. He then said: "bring me here every morning early half a pint of milk (in other versions, bread). Do not call anyone. Leave it for me in this spot, and you will find a coin there every day. And take care not to say anything to anybody." For a long time the man brought the milk and took the money. His wife asked where it came from and pressed him until he told her. The next day, instead of the money, he found a horn with a sign: "Falaches, corneaches" (You talked, you got horns) ^[5].

The Mosteiro treasure (Guntimil)

In the place of Mosteiro, in Guntimil (Xinzo), the houses are built with the stones of an abandoned monastery and, on a leafy hillock, the ruins remain, which have a reputation for guarding a treasure. It is told that at the start of the 20th century a group of Englishmen arrived with the Ciprianillo in hand, with hoes, picks and shovels, but as soon as the locals noticed, they drove them off with stones. "The treasure must still be there, because some things are better not stirred up" ^[8].