118 KOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



But the tone soon changes; and, at the Last, there comes the "loni-,- 



ivii-ret "' — 



Si j'étais hirondelle. 

 Vers toi, bell' demoiselle, 

 Par derrièr' ces rochers 

 J'irais prendr' ma volée. 

 Sur votre main, la belle, 

 J'irais me reposer, 

 Pour raconter la peine 

 Que jai. 



There may be a suspicion of lettered workmanship about all this ; yet in 

 Maskinonge, the only part of Canada Avhere it is known, it is truly 

 popular ; and, taken as the folksong expression of yearning for an absent 

 lover, it will almost bear comparison with even this delightful snatch of 

 Old-World grace : 



Celui que mon c<cur aime tant, 

 Il est dessus la mer jolie. 

 Petit oiseau, tu peux lui dire. 

 Petit oiseau, tu lui diras. 

 Que je suis sa fidèle amie 

 Et que vers lui je tend les bras. 



But, whether poetical or not, the Canadian folksong, in its ])roper 

 home, is never without its own peculiar charm ; and we have alread}^ 

 seen where it does and where it does not make its home : not Avithin the 

 shadow of the Church, though it has caught the Christian tone better 

 than all others have ; not in any moonlit fairyland, though it can tread a 

 fair}' measure well enough ; not among mysterious forest -ai si es, for it has 

 no wild-wood fancy of its own ; nor among " enchantments drear," for it 

 has long since lost the thrill of fearful joy ; nor yet with Nature, for it 

 cannot see her beauties : but, at every season of the year, with the nurse 

 at the cradle, the children at their play, the s])inners at the wheel and the 

 guests at the mari'iage-feast, and everywhere and alvvays Avith lovers 

 when apart ; in summer time with the habitant out in the open tields 

 and the knittei's in the sun awaiting his return, or away with the voy- 

 ageur in camp or in canoe ; and in winter, when nights are long and 

 cold, within the easeful farm-house circle, or far-off, amid the silent snows 

 and beneath great sleeping pines, with a cabinful of careless shantymen 

 gathered arouinl thcii' evening tire. 



