Note 4 — FURNITURE

The early nomenclature of the clothes and other fittings of a Spanish bed is bewildering. We find in common use the canopy (almocalla, almuzala; Arabic, al-mokalla, i.e. “haven of refuge in all winds”—not always, possibly, a judicious term in the case of a cama de matrimonio or “marriage-bed”); the cloth-lined skins for chilly weather (alifafe, alifad; Arabic al-lifafh), such as King Juan the First of Aragon provided for his daughter (“two leathers of Morocco for the bed.” Archive of the Crown of Aragon; Registro 1906, fol. 42); the parament or dosal; the galnapé or topmost of the bedclothes proper (“un lecho con guenabe”; Fuero of Cáceres, a.d. 1229); the counterpane (fatel, fatol, alfatel, facel, farele, fateye, fatiro; Arabic fatla); the linen sheets (izares, lentros, lentos, lintes, lincas, linteáminas, or lencios); and the mattress, pillow, and bolster, called, all three of them, plumazo, plumario, or plumaco. Nearly or quite identical in meaning with these last are cúlcita and almadraque. Cúlcita is corrupted into colcedra, cocedra, conzara, colotra, and other more or less barbaric variations; while almohada, almuella, travesera, almofadinha, faseruelo, and aljamar also signify a pillow or a cushion.