twooD] FOOTNOTES TO CANADIAN FOLKSONGS 111 



close in most. All nursery rh3'nies and lullabies may lie taken as of 

 purely French orig-in : so may all songs of the tj^pe of Ct'r/7/a,'^ Lc 

 maumarié and La niatunarUe,^'^^ Jc nc veux pas (fun hahitant,^'-^' En 

 roulant ,^'^^ Aa jardin de mon père un orani/^'r lui-ya,^'^^ Dans les prisons 

 de Nantes,^'^-^ Marianne au moulin.,-"" Ferrcttc est bien malade ^"^ and 

 others too numerous to mention. The peculiar restrictions which pre- 

 vented many Canadian variants from attainnig a too luxuriant growth 

 are well described by Mr. Gag-non.-"- We ma}' see how powerful these 

 restrictions were, bj' taking such a typical theme as Jje retonr du mari and 

 comparing Dr. Larue's version -"^ with M. Fleury's four Lower JSTorman 

 variants,-"^ or with those of Spain and Portugal which are the most 

 romantic ones of all. The Canadian variant of Au jardin de mon père un 

 oranger lui-ya^'^ breaks off suddenly, whilst Fleury's Norman variants^*^ 

 tell the whole story, like those of Bartsch,-"" Bujeaud,-"^'' Legrand,^"^ and 

 others. It is a noticeable fact in folk-history that the Xorman 

 '■ Coucou " ^^^ has never been acclimatized in Canada. 



Mon père a fait bâtir maison is sung in Saiutonge and Aunis, 

 J'ai cueilli la belle rose in Angoumois, Cambresis, Artois and Le Niver- 

 nais, Au bois du rossi<jnolet in Franche-Comté and Switzerland, Gai 

 le rosier and J'ai trop e/rand ijeur des loups in Poitou, Cecilia and 

 Isabeau s'y promène in Champagne, A St-MaJo, beau port de mer in 

 French Brittany, A la Glaire Fontaine in Normand}' and a dozen other 

 provinces, and Quand j'étais chez mon père, petite Jeanneton ail over 

 France.'" It is interesting to observe how folksongs which have wandered 

 from their native home often retain their more ancient forms in an outlying- 

 colony. This was the case with Greek songs, so it is said ; and it certainly 

 was with the Anglo-Saxon songs, for Beowulf is the oldest Teutonic epic ; 

 the Icelandic songs preserved much of the folklore of the Old Norse, and 

 some of the finest Portuguese ballads have been collected in the Azores : 

 and in Canada we have versions of A la Claire Fontaine, ^^' Le Pommier 

 Doux, and other songs which are older, and often more poetical, than most 

 of the variants now current in France. 



Tlie number of French folksongs represented by Canadian variants 

 in our texts is certainly remarkable ; but, to give a just view of the 

 relationship between the collections of the two countries, we must not 

 forget to mention that no trace is to be found in either Mr. Gagnon or 

 Dr. Larue of many of the most j^opular and typical songs of France. Of 

 course, it must be borne in mind that those two gentlemen were not col- 

 lecting for folklorists, but for the general public — and the public has 

 rai'ely been better served — but it is, at least, noteworthy from every point 

 of view, that they have given us no specimens of the following types : 

 Le mari henêt,-^^ File a choisi le vieux^'^ La fille perdue^^^'" Le moine 

 blanc j'^' La chanson des regrets,'" Les trois tambours,^^'^ La fille engagée 

 au regiment ^-^^ La courte pai lie,'-''' L'amant qui tue sa maîtresse,^'^ 3Iartin,'''-^ 



