Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 31.djvu/302

292 traditional octosyllabic verse lives, therefore, in New Mexico and other Spanish countries, in full vigor; but in Spain, Porto Rico, and perhaps a few other places, literary influences, or the influences of popular literary traditions that were strong in Spain after the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, introduced other metres, especially the hexasyllable. In Porto Rico the prevalence of this metre by the side of the octosyllable may be accounted for in this manner.

This is not all, however. Besides the metrical problems, one must also consider the subject-matter. While the hexasyllable is not very popular in Old-Spanish poetry, it is common enough, nevertheless, in the villancicos, letrillas, and popular cancioncillas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and these classes of composition may have been continued in the oral tradition of Porto Rico with the help of the other influences above mentioned. However that may be, the subject-matter must be considered also; and here, again, we find noteworthy differences and comparisons. The décimas found in Porto Rico in hexasyllabic verse are for the most part compositions that treat of the Nativity and kindred subjects. The aguinaldos that are composed in octosyllabic quatrains treat also of like subjects. It would be interesting to know whether the real Nativity plays, such as are found in New Mexico, Mexico, and Spain, are also popular in Porto Rico. The décimas in hexasyllabic verse, and the Christmas carols in hexasyllabic quatrains, deal with the same subjects as the Nativity plays, or pastorelas, as they are called in New Mexico and Mexico. They continue all the biblical traditions of the Nativity, and the popularity and diffusion of the Christmas carol does not seem so necessary. In Porto Rico the great popularity and diffusion of the Christmas carol under discussion may be an outgrowth of the most popular passages of the pastorelas. In New Mexico a few of the popular passages of the pastorelas are everywhere known and sung independently. These pastorelas are also very old, and are a direct outgrowth and continuation of the Old-Spanish Nativity plays and other compositions of the sixteenth century. When a large number of décimas and Christmas carols in hexasyllabic verse, and a large number of the aguinaldos similar to those of Porto Rico, are found in other Spanish countries, we shall be better able to judge of the age and traditional character of all this material. From the material which we find at our disposal, it does not seem that a large amount of the Porto-Rican material is very old. It may have come directly from similar material handed down in oral tradition; but, if so, it must have