[14] That the Portuguese and the Galician were originally not to be distinguished from each other, is expressly stated by that attentive observer of the forms of his native language, Nunez de Liaõ, who says, _As quaes ambas_, (namely, the Portuguese and the Galician tongues) _eraõ antigamente quasi huma mesma nas palavras, e diphthongos, e pronunciação, que as outras partes de Hespanha naõ tem_. ORIGEM DA LINGOA PORTUGUEZA, cap. VI. [15] Velasquez, who felt this, thought fit when he read the _Lusiade de Camões_, to pay a particular compliment to the author, at the expense of the Portuguese language; for, after delivering the same opinion on that language, which is entertained by most Spaniards, he very elegantly adds: “the muses thought otherwise when they spoke through the mouth of Camoens.” [16] _Cada fuente de Portugal y cada monte son Hippocrenes y Parnassos_, says Manuel de Faria y Sousa, in his _Epitome de las Historias Portugueses_. Father Sarmiento, a Spanish author, whom national prejudice does not prevent from doing justice to the Portuguese, mentions this observation in his instructive _Memorias para la Poesia Española_. [17] The word is used in this extensive sense by Sarmiento in his _Memorias_, or as the book is sometimes called, _Obras posthumas_, parte i. p. 168. Authors are far from being agreed respecting the origin of the term _redondillas_, (according to the Portuguese orthography _redondilhas_.) But is not the word more naturally derived from _redondo_ (round), than from a small town called Redondo? Instead of redondillas, these compositions are sometimes named _redondillos_, the word _versos_ being understood. In German they might be called _ringelverse_ (circular verses.) [18] Shall it be said that there is, in the German language, no kind of verse which unites to so much grace, a character so truly popular! Let Burger’s _Nachtfeier der Venus_ be considered, before this be determined. Even the Esthonian Serfs, on the coast of the Baltic, chaunt their simple ballads in the same measure. Proof of this may be seen on reference to Petri’s _Nachrichten von den Esthen_, vol. ii. p. 69. [19] Among others, Sarmiento, who in support of this opinion, quotes some verses from Virgil, for example: _Inter viburna cupressi_--_Tondenti barba cadebat_, &c. These verses have, it is true, eight syllables, but not four trochaic feet. [20] How does it happen that none of the Spanish authors have taken notice of the ancient songs sung by the Roman soldiers, though they are evidently _redondillas_? Suetonius has preserved some remarkable examples of these songs; and the same measure occurs after the decline of latin poetry, particularly in some pious verses of Prudentius, which are quoted by Sarmiento.