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Cuento y leyenda de Sedella

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

Cuento y leyenda de Sedella

Zip Code 29715
Chronicles and Legends (si se trata de historia)

Its name possibly comes from the Latin word “sedilla” which in Lower Roman meant rural settlement.

  • Name of its inhabitants:

Sedellanos.

  • Legend:

Among its legends, Sedella has a great number of tales about the events that have already been discussed, such as those that refer to hidden treasures which have still to appear, goats and other animals with torches on their horns to give the idea that a great army was besieging the Arab fortress at night, hidden passages which link strategic areas, etc. One of them is certainly ingenious; it is the one that talks about the name of
the town.

According to this story, when they went to Isabel la Católica to give her the news of the town and of a battle that had taken place near the town (probably the legend refers to a clash between the Muslims headed by El Zagal and the Christian troops, which gave rise to the name of the arroyo de Matanza), before the messenger finished the queen stopped him and said: Sê de ella (I know about it). This version has little historical backing but it lends itself to the legend of the name of Sedella.

A rather macabre legend tells the story of Moreno Arce, better known as Morenito (Swarthy), who was born and lived in the town towards the end of the XVI century. This quarrelsome and swaggering young man was known for his misdemeanors. The story goes that one lunch time he heard the foreman of a gang of reapers insult his father. The impetuous young man, without a word, jumped on the foreman, cut off his ear and sitting on him, already earless, he finished his meal. Reported by one of his cousins for all his crimes and his demeanors, he was discovered in a cave, was executed, then quartered, and as an example to the town his members were scattered on the access road to the town. As a result the road was named by stretches, according to the part of the accused that had been placed there, in other words: stretch of the head, stretch of the leg, stretch of the arm, etc.

An interesting tradition is the one related to Palm Sunday, widely accepted in Christendom, which suggests that believers should wear new clothes or something new on that day, no matter what. In Sedella this tradition takes on another peculiar dimension as it is suggested that inhabitants did not wash as anyone who did could run the risk that hands could develop a disease and could catch verrucas.

 

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