[wood] footnotes to CANADIAN FOLKSONGS 113 



honour. The variants of the Métamorphoses of Lore have 8])read 

 from the East over the Mhole Avorld. and are 80 universal that it would 

 be difficult to find an}' language in which they are quite unknown. Jn 

 Mr. Cxagnon's two variants ^*^ the lover has to follow his mistress through 

 her changes into an eel, a lai'k. a nun and so forth. Some other lovers, 

 even when they belong to the Aveaker sex. are much more severely tried. 

 In the Border ballad of Tdmlane-*' the hero warns his love : 



They'll turn me in your arms, lady, 



Into an ask and adder ; 



They'll turn me to a bear sae grim 



And then a lion bold. 



And last they'll turn me in your arms 



Into the burning gleed ; 



Then thrbw me into the well-water, 



throw me in with speed ; 



And then I'll be your own true love, 



I'll turn a naUed knight. 



In Penda Balua, a negro ballad of Senegambia, the P'airy Lover turns 

 into a crocodile, when once he has carried the girl into his enchanted 

 kingdom. In Alison Gross a bewitched knight is restored to himself 

 on Hallowe'en '■ when the seely Court was riding by."' The dipping of 

 Tainhtne in Avater is a variant process ot similar acts in an Indian tale 

 called Surya Bai, in a Hottentot story, in one of von Hahn's Albanian 

 folk-tales, and in the ancient Egyptian story of the Two Brothers. The 

 classical versions, especiallv the story of Proteus in the fourth book of 

 the Odyssey, hardly need mention.-'' 



The metaiitorpho.sis at}V)rds us a striking illustration of the wonderful 

 ditfusion of identical themes ; but, when we hear of Chenier's translating a 

 Eomaic folksong which had lu'cn taken down from oral tradition in the 

 highlands of Greece, and which proved to be the same as Ophelia's 

 song, which Shakespeare learnt from some English crowder. we are even 

 more struck by the Avonderful diffusion of identical variants.'-'*' And any- 

 one Avho might wish to make Canada his starting point and thence study the 

 diffusion of theme and variants together on a universal scale, ma}' be 

 recommended to begin with Voilà les noyageurs qu arrivent ■,-*'" for, 

 Avherever soldiers, sailors and songs are knoAvn. there we are sure of 

 finding versions oï Le retour 'hi nuiri. 



XII. 



Poetry. 



As the ('ana<lian folksongs have been considered in the foregoing 

 notes mainly as an interesting subject of folklore stttdy, the question 

 naturally follows whether they are worthy of attention from the point 

 <jf view of ])octry alone? 1 think it may be made clear that they are 

 woi'lli some study from the point of view of art. though it is equally 



Sec. II., 1896. 8. 



