hymns. The religious spirit of the Spanish people is dominant in all Spanish literary genres; and we find it expressed not only in the sacred hymns and prayers, but also in ballads, coplas populares, riddles, décimas, etc.
Prayers and sacred hymns are very abundant in the modern tradition of Spanish peoples, but I have seen very few important publications. In New Mexico, Father J. B. Ralliere has published the very important work, already mentioned, "Cánticos Espirituales," a real popular collection, although there are also many hymns of purely literary and modern source. I do not find in this collection any of the Porto-Rican hymns here published, because most of them are hymns, and not prayers. In the "Romancero y Cancionero Sagrados," already mentioned, I do not find versions of those from Porto Rico, either; nor do I find them in the work of Laval, "Oraciones, Ensalmos y Conjuros del pueblo Chileno." The Porto-Rican material is not abundant enough to permit a comparative study. A more comprehensive collection would certainly be very welcome.
367.
Santísima cruz,
tú eres la más alta:
tus pies son de oro,
tus manos de plata.
La cruz que desea
verse florecida,
entre tantas flores
se halla convertida.
Santísima cruz,
hermoso madero,
porque a Jesucristo
en ti lo pusieron.
Santísima cruz,
madero bendito,
porque en ti fué puesto
Dios infinito.
368.
Líbrame, señor, Dios mío,
de tener mala intención,
y que mire con horror
el deseo de los impíos.
Quiero ser manso y sufrido;
y concédeme también
que los cuernos no portar (sic).
Las campanas: ¡Cataplán,
cataplán, cataplán!
369.
Altísimo señor,
que supiste juntar
a un tiempo en el altar,
ser cordero y pastor.
Confieso con dolor
que hice mal en huir
de quien por mí
quiso morir.
367. This composition has all the characteristics of an old traditional prayer. The quatrain form and the hexasyllabic metre are both common in the religious glosas and endechas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Compare also the aguinaldos and hexasyllabic décimas.
368. The final verses are an indication of the popular character of this prayer.
369. This beautiful prayer has also all the characteristics of a traditional composition, — the rhyme-arrangements; the mixture of various metres, including the so-called pies quebrados; and, finally, the use of both the singular and plural of the personal pronoun, a usage found even in authors like Fray Luis de León.
