Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 31.djvu/446

436 Peces coge el niño

florido y hermoso,

que el que los cogiere

será venturoso.

— Madre, en la puerta está el niño

más bonito que el sol bello;

está temblando de frío,

desmelenado el cabello.

Peces coge el niño,

etc.

— Díganle que entre,

se calentará, etc.

porque en esta tierra

hay caridad.

Peces coge el niño,

etc.

Un día de mañanita

Se paró el niño en la puerta,

con tres fanegas de trigo

y en la mano una peseta,

diciendo: — Aquí está la paja

que te ofrecí anoche

Por la madrugada.

Peces coge el niño,

etc.

The following nursery rhymes are for the most part traditional, and have variants in all Spanish countries. In my own collections from Mexico, Chile, and California, I have numerous versions of almost identical or similar rhymes, some with many Old-Spanish vocables and rhymes, so that their traditional character is evident. In the published materials from New Mexico and Spain there are also numerous identical or similar compositions. The chief interest in these traditional nursery rhymes (and also in the recitative rhymes that follow) is to be found in the fact that many of them are ballad verses. There are some traditional Spanish ballads known only in the fragmentary versions found in nursery and other rhymes. The following Porto-Rican aguinaldo (No. 245, rhyme 5), also nursery rhyme, for example, —

La Virgen lavaba,

San José tendía;

el niño lloraba,

Joaquín lo mecía, —

to the Sevillan version collected by myself. See Chacón y Calvo, "Romances Tradicionales en Cuba" (Revista de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias [Habana, 1914], pp. 115-116).