GAME NOTES AND FOLK-LORE. 243 



or others not of the country-side. They 

 speak to strangers in the voice of the nine- 

 teenth century, the voice of newspaper, book, 

 and current ideas. They reserve for them- 

 selves their own ancient tongue and ancient 

 ideas, their traditions, and belief in the 

 occult. Perhaps this very reservation tends 

 to keep up the past among them. There is 

 thus a double life the superficial and the 

 real. The labourer has disused the "z" 

 openly, but still remains and will remain 

 distinct from the inhabitants of other coun- 

 ties. It is a distinction of race that cannot 

 be removed by the printing press. The men 

 of Red Deer Land are ethnographically 

 separate from those to the east of them, 

 and they cannot be taught out of their 

 racial peculiarities. 



A tendency to slur their words is still 

 apparent ; they run the consonants of several 

 words together, and an unaccustomed ear 



