{351} It is possibly an older language than either. It resembles rather the Portuguese than the Spanish, and is of great interest in many ways. The great religious poem of Alfonso X., _Los Loores y Milagros de Nuestra Señora_, written between 1263 and 1284, when the national language was hardly formed, was written in Galician, though from the beginning of the fourteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century little attention was paid to the literary language. Within the last few years a species of provincial revival has taken place, and the following works among others have been published in and about the language of Galicia: (1) D. Juan Saco Arce, _Gramatica Gallega_ (Lugo, 1868), with an appendix of proverbs and popular songs; (2) Fernandez y Morales, _Ensayos poeticos_, edited by Don Mariano Cubi y Soler; (3) A. G. Besada, _Historia critica de la literatura gallega_ (La Coruña, 1887); the works of Manuel Murginà, also published at La Coruña; Don Juan Cuveiro Piñol’s _Diccionario Gallego_ and _El habla_, both published at Barcelona in 1876; and, best of all, Don Manuel Nuñez Valladares’ _Diccionario Gallego-Castillano_ (Santiago, 1884). {353} “I believe it!” {359} This is a curious blunder. _Lucus Augusti_ was not only never capital of Roman Spain, but the capital only of _Northern Gallaecia_, or Galicia; as _Bracara Augusta_, or Braga, was the chief town and seat of a _Conventus Juridicus_ of southern Galicia, the Minho being the boundary of the northern and southern divisions of the province. Roman Spain was at no time a province, but included, from B.C. 205 to A.D. 325, many provinces, each with its own provincial capital. In the division of the Roman world by Constantine, Hispania first became an administrative unit as a diocese in the Prefecture of Gaul, with its capital at _Hispalis_ or Seville, the residence of the Imperial Vicar (see Burke’s _History of Spain_, vol. i. pp. 31, 35, 36). {360} “Woe is me, O God!” {361} Combats with young bulls, usually by amateur fighters. Although the animals are immature, and the tips of their horns, moreover, sawn off to make the sport less dangerous, accidents are far more common than in the more serious _corridas_, where the professionals take no step without due deliberation and _secundum artem_. _Novillo_, of course, means only a young bull; but in common parlance in Spain _los toros_ means necessarily a serious bull-fight, and _los novillos_ an amateur exhibition. {363} See note on p. 340. {365} Span. _anis_ (see Glossary). {366a} An _onza_ (see Glossary). {366b} The real word, of which this is a modification, is _Carajo_—a word which, used as an adjective, represents the English “bloody,” and used as a substantive, something yet more gross. In decent society the first syllable is considered quite strong enough as an expletive, and, modified as _Caramba_, may even fall from fair lips. {366c} At Seville Borrow seems to have been known as _El brujo_ (_v._ p. 178).