[wood] footnotes to CANADIAN FOLKSONGS 103 



This constant mention of animals shows us what nursery favourites they 

 have always been : Avitness, Le Chat à Jeannette, La Petit' pouV grisey 

 Jje Bal des Souris and lues Noces du Pa.pillon for France,"" and for 

 Canada the Avedding of Pinson avec Cendrouille^^^ and the unending 

 enumerative which begins with Une Perdriole}^'^ 



It is strange that ^h*. Gagnon gives us no lullabies of the Virgin, 

 unless we can take D'où viens-tu^ bergère, as one ; for they form an 

 important class apart, and are met with in many countries. They are, 

 however, somewhat like the noels in tone, and often had a common non- 

 popular origin. The famous one with the refrain 



Millies tibi laudes canimus 

 Mille, mille, millies,i-« 



could hardly have been of popular composition, even if it had been in 

 some vernacular ; but another Latin one ^-' might well have been a folk- 

 song : 



Dormi Jesu, mater ridet. 



Qua? tarn dulcera somnum videt, 



Dormi Jesu blandule. 



Si non dormis, mater plorat, 



Inter fila cantans orat : 



Blaude, veni Somnule. 



The last line reminds us that lullabies are long-lived beyond most other 

 folksongs and trace their descent from Pagan times. " Blande, veni 

 Somnule " is at least a reminiscence of the direct invocation to Sleep, 

 still common among many folk. The vavrapiffpiara of Modern 

 Greece have many such invocations ; so have the som-soms of Languedoc 

 and Auvergne, like the one beginning, 



Som-som, beni, beai, beni ; i— 



and SO, too. have the souin-souins of La Bresse : '-^ 



Le poupon voudi-ait bien"domir ; 

 Le Souin-souin ne veut pas venir. 

 Souin-souin, vené, vené, vené ; 

 Souin-souin, vené, vené, donc ! 



There are no heathen invocations in our Canadian lullabies, but when a 

 habitante calls upon Sainte- Marguerite^^-'^ she is invoking a favourite 

 saint in the White Paternoster,^-^ and, as the White Paternoster was in- 

 vented as a charm against the Evil spirits which could be conjured with 

 a Black Paternoster or other magical formula, the connection with a 

 survival of Pagan beliefs is not far to seek. It is curious to observe 

 the number of Christian customs which the folk has pressed into the 

 service of White Magic ; even the ' Angelus' has not escaped, the Pro- 

 vencals believing that it was instituted to scare away the evil spirits who 

 might be tempted out by the approach of night ! 



