78 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



hypothesis tind so little sound theory on many ])oints of folklore, that it 

 is manifestly too earl}' to expect a perfect critical apparatus ; but a good 

 edition for the student is still Avithin reach, if only it is taken in hand at 

 once and carried out with thoroughness. To be complete, such an edition 

 should have maps of France and Canada in the time of the Grrand Mon- 

 arque, showing, as nearly as possible, the old and new home's of the 

 emigrants : it should also have folklore inaps of both countries at the 

 present time. An index, a bibliography and a glossary with philological 

 introduction are quite indispensable. Verse and music being insej^arable 

 in the folksong, their mutual relations should be explained in a preface ; 

 but, to ensure full justice to each, separate introductions should be written, 

 that to the verse showing the place of the folksong in the beliefs, manners 

 and customs and general life-history of the people. Besides this, eveiy 

 song should have its two foot-notes, one on the verse, the other on the air, 

 where all variants. Canadian, French and foreign, should be cited with 

 exact bibliographical references. It is fortunately unnecessary, now-a- 

 daj'S, to insist upon a faithful text, that being taken for granted. But there 

 are degrees of faithtulncss, and nothing short of perfection should be 

 accepted. When a song is taken down from oral tradition, not only 

 should ever}' musical note be exactly reproduced, but every appropriate 

 gesture should be noted as well ; and, when the perfect authenticity of 

 the mtmuscript version has been proved, the editor should see that the 

 printing follows it line for line, word for word and letter for letter. Even 

 this is not enough to ensure absolute fidelity in all cases, for it is some- 

 times very hard to withstand the temptation to make up a complete 

 editorial version out of authentic fragments : finding all the materials is 

 not the same thing as the discovery of the building. 



One word as to the collectors themselves. If there is one thing more 

 tiian another which needs sympathy, tact and an insight into human 

 nature, it is the collection of folksongs. The mere patience required is no 

 small thing, as we can see from the ditficulties Mr. Gagnon met with here 

 in Canada, where, as in old Normandy, the songs were as plentiful as the 

 apples. But the chief difficulty to overcome is the shyness and suspicion 

 of the folk when they know they are being observed. Their first instinct 

 is to deny all knowledge of superstitious practices, out-of-the-way customs 

 or curious legends, and so, perhaps, the best collecting of all is done as it 

 were by accident, by living among the people and gathering up the songs 

 and stories they let fall from time to time.* Mile Hélène Vacaresco, to 

 whom we owe the splendid collection of Roumanian folksongs, published 

 in J',ngland ^ under the title of The Bard of the Dimbovitza, "was 

 forced to affect a desire to learn spinning, that she might join the girls at 

 their spinning-parties, and so overhear their songs more easily ; she hid 

 in the tall maize to hear the reapers crooning them ; she caught them 

 from the lips of peasant women, of lute-players, of gipsies and fortune- 



