188 ROMANCE BALLADS

originally to Old Castile, and it may have been Old Castile that
transformed them into ballads. The original focus of Spanish
balladry was thus Castile in the widest sense, the whole area em-
braced between Burgos and Sevilla. It was from here that the
national themes broadened outward. Study of the melodies shows
a certain dichotomy between the more European style of the north
and the more Oriental luxuriance of the south; it shows also that
southern tunes have penetrated northward. As for the ballads
which are not indigenous, a geographical study1 has shown how
they advanced in waves of versions and variants from, the south
or south-east to the north-west, isolating older forms and confin-
ing them to the remoter regions.

Hence the importance for Spanish ballad study of the versions
still preserved in the remoter regions: in Catalonia and Portugal
(which require a place apart), in the Asturian mountains, in Spanish
America, and among the exiled Balkan Jews.2 The fire has burnt
out in the original hearth, but the sparks are tended wherever any
semblance of the old close communities still persists. The ballads
of the Asturias are exceptionally rich in authentic texts; texts which
may be used to emend the versions preserved for us by sixteenth-
century collectors. There has, it is true, been some loss in topics
and style. The lyrical element has increased, the narratives have
become predominantly novelesque. Historical ballads are perish-
able, and if they survive it is for their entertainment value alone.
One frontier ballad is known in the Asturias, none in the Balkans,
but five among the highly conservative Jews of Morocco. The
murder of the Master of Santiago is still retold in the Asturias and
Morocco, but the others of the series have gone. On the other
hand, the deaths of Prince Afonso and the Duke of Gandia are
still remembered. The ancient literary ballads derived from
Spanish or French sources have been severely thinned out by time,
but adventure stories are numerous, together with those of Biblical
and pious origin.

Amid all these losses, one is impressed by the faithfulness of
ballad tradition. The Jews are exiles, with every reason to hate the

1 R. Men£ndez Pidal, cSobre geografia folkldrica', Revista de Filologia Espa-
nolay vii, 1920.

2 R. Mene*ndez Pidal, *E1 romancero judio-espanol' and 'Los romances en
America' in El Romancero, Madrid, 1927; J. M. de Cossio and T. Maza, Romancero
popular de la Montana, Santander, 1933-4; R- Gil, Romancero judeo-espanol,
Madrid, 1911.