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Cuento y leyenda de Sayalonga

Diputación de Málaga
Portada Guía de cuentos y leyendas de la Axarquía.ESP

Cuento y leyenda de Sayalonga

Zip Code 29752
Chronicles and Legends (si se trata de historia)

The origin of its name is still unknown. Although the town’s origin is Arabic, no one knows exactly when it was inhabited.

  • Name of its inhabitants:

Sayalonguinos.

  • Famous personalities:

Alî ibm Ahmd ibn Muhammad Al-Hasnî, was a poet born in Batarxis, in the district of Sayalonga at the start of the XIV century. He was the author of a history of the holy city of Mecca and of the governors of Muslim Málaga. Bisma I, born in the district of Sayalonga, in Curumbela, and king of Málaga was a learned monarch and great lover of the arts. The construction of the Alcazaba was finished during his reign.

  • Legend:

Legend has it that the Cid, on one of his visits to the area, on his way through Sayalonga, drank from the fountain which today, in memory of that event, bears his name: Fuente del Cid (the Fountain of the Cid).

There is something of a legend in the amazing event surrounding the appearance in the mid-XIX century of the statue of the Virgen del Rosario (Virgin of the Rosary), patron saint of the town, covered in sea water and scattered with scales and seaweed. Days later, some fishermen told the excited inhabitants how, when they were fishing, when night came, the sea became rough and wild, the boat was tossed about by the waves and the sailors lost their bearings; as a result they feared the worse. In the midst of the storm, they started to pray and, instantly, they saw to their amazement how a Virgin rose up from the sea and guided them to the coast.

On hearing the story the inhabitants understood why several days earlier the statue of the Virgin had appeared in the town, with traces of scales and seaweed. The sailors were taken by the crowds to the church and as soon as they saw it they recognized it; they knelt in front and prayed with devotion and thanksgiving.

Among the interesting things, people remember that during the first decades of last century, as there was no doctor, means of transport or sufficient money in the town, its inhabitants decided to treat some of the illnesses that ailed them with a great dose of imagination and went back to remedies their ancestors had used. Some of those remedies have been recovered in the interest of maintaining traditions.

Possibly one of the most interesting and surprising remedies used was the one used to treat jaundice. The patient had to go to the river and, for half an hour, had to concentrate on the water, follow its course with his eyes and think of nothing else. If he was not cured, they claimed that the relief felt was very considerable.

 

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