POPULAR SONGS. 411 



The religions canticles and ballads preserved their characteristics of single- 

 minded devotion much longer than the carols, and, unlike the works manu- 

 factured by a professional poet, they resemble rather the prayers and orisons 

 set to church music. The pilgrims, the relic showers, and the vendors of 

 consecrated medals chanted in slow and monotonous tones the interminable 

 stories of saints, male and female " Genevieve de Brabant," " St. Roch," 

 " St. Antoine," and many other masterpieces of simple faith, which have 



Fig. 324. A Ballad Singer accompanying himself upon the Violin. Miniature from Manuscript 

 of the Thirteenth century, No. 6,819. In the National Library, Paris. 



come down to us in modern form, and which will, perhaps, survive centuries 

 after much of the modern and printed poetry has been forgotten (Fig. 320). 

 The following modernised song dates, beyond all doubt, from a very ancient 



epoch : 



"C'eet sainte Catherine, 

 La fille d'un grand roi : 

 Son pere etait paten, 

 Sa im iv no 1'etait pas. 

 Ave Maria, Sancta CatKarina, 

 Dei mater, alleluia. 



