POPULAR SONGS. 



principles of duration, were the primitive expression of the passions, the 

 beliefs, and the ideas of each great human family (Fig. 318). It is easy to 

 understand how most of these popular songs were lost as time rolled on, and 

 why only a few faint echoes of them are now preserved, for the very essence 

 of a popular song is that it receives no written publicity, but passes from 

 mouth to mouth, leaving no other trace than verbal reminiscences. The 

 early peoples were not in the habit of writing. "The Germans," says 



Allegro. 



Da ikmabgwennDrouiz.o-re; Da-ik pe-lra felld'id-de? pe-lra ga-ninn- 



3=r----^Ei=d 

 ^H-hJ-b-*-! == 



me d'irt -de? Kan d'ineuz a - eur raiiu, Ken a ouf-enn bre-man. 



Heb rann ar Red heb-ken : An - Kou , tad ann an-ken;Ne- 



rfcfrt 



tra kcntne tra ken. Da-ikmabgwenn Drouiz.o - re; Da-ik pe-lra 



felld'id-de? pe-tra ga-ninn - me did- de? Kand'iueuz a zaou rann, 



/TS 





Ken a ouf-enn bre-man. 



Fig. 319. A Song of the Druidic Epoch, Words and Music. Translated hy Fctis in his 

 " General History of Music." 



Tacitus, " possessed some very ancient poems, in which were celebrated the 

 warlike actions and noble deeds of their ancestors, and which were transmitted 

 from father to son as the only annals of their race." Among the Gauls the 

 Druids preserved as a sacred deposit the religious poems which dated from 

 the very earliest times, and which contained the mysteries of their religion 

 (Fig. 319), and these religious poems were in no case committed to writing. 



