h" each other.]

Still the form, puzzling as it is, is extremely interesting, and very
satisfactory to those who can be content with unsystematic enjoyment.
The recurrent wave-sound which has been noted in the _chansons_ is at
least as noticeable, though less regular, here. Let us, for instance,
open the poem in the double-columned edition of 1842 at random, and
take the passage on the opening, pp. 66, 67, giving the best part of
two hundred lines, from 3491 to 3641. The eye is first struck with the
constant repetition of catch-endings--"Infantes de Carrion," "los del
Campeador"--each of which occurs at a line-end some dozen times in the
two pages. The second and still more striking thing is that almost all
this long stretch of verse, though not in one single _laisse_, is
carried upon an assonance in _o_, either plump (_Infanzon_, _cort_,
_Carrion_, &c.), which continues with a break or two for at least
fifty lines, or with another vowel in double assonance (_taiadores_,
_tendones_, _varones_). But this sequence is broken incomprehensibly
by such end-words as _tomar_; and the length of the lines defies all
classification, though one suspects some confusion of arrangement. For
instance, it is not clear why

"Colada e Tizon que non lidiasen con ellas los del Campeador"

should be printed as one line, and

"Hybalos ver el Rey Alfonso.
Dixieron los del Campeador,"

as two.

If we then turn to the earlier part, that which comes before the
Carrion story, we shall find the irregularity greater still. It is
possible, no doubt, by making rules sufficiently elastic, to devise
some sort of a system for five consecutive lines which end _folgar_,
_comer_, _acordar_, _grandes_, and _pan_; but it will be a system so
exceedingly elastic that it seems a superfluity of trouble to make it.
On a general survey it may, I think, be said that either in double or
single assonance _a_ and _o_ play a much larger part than the other
vowels, whereas in the French analogues there is no predominance of
this kind, or at least nothing like so much. And lastly, to
conclude[198] these rather desultory remarks on a subject which
deserves much more attention than it has yet had, it may be worth
observing that by an odd coincidence the _Poema del Cid_ concludes
with a delusive personal mention very similar to, though even more
precise than, that about "Turoldus" in the _Chanson de Roland_. For it
ends--

"Per Abbat le escribio en