21 After examining Arabic verses, written in the European manner, it cannot be difficult, even for persons unacquainted with the language, to form a sufficient idea of the influence which the monotonic rhymes of the Moors had on the old Castilian romances. See, for example, the following passage of the Koran:
But the Spanish ear required some variety, and accordingly preferred a predominant to a single unchanging rhyme. Thus in the romance:—
22 Such rimas asonantes as occur in the words noble and pone, dolor and corazon, are easily recognized. But from some old Spanish romances, it appears that the return of the same consonants sometimes supplies the place of an assonant rhyme; for example, when the words baxo, crucifixo, enojo, &c. follow each other at short intervals.
23 See what is stated by Sarmiento, p. 191, from an old letter of the Marquis of Santillana, of which more particular notice must soon be taken in this work.