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curiosity. A systematic search during the summer months nearly 
twenty years ago opened wide vistas. There were still good folk- 
singers, and many of them. They possessed a treasure-house of 
songs, over a hundred songs to one singer alone — more than the 
whole Gagnon set itself. The tunes were fresh, rhythmic, and 
spirited, as if they had been sung for the first time. The pan- 
orama of ancient French life at the Court, in town, or on the 
country roads, was brought back into existence. The miracles 
and dark tragedies of mediaeval times were retold as if they had 
happened yesterday. No survival of the past could be more 
vital and inspiring. It seemed no longer possible that the 
traditions of a people could sink overnight into oblivion. 
In the past fifteen years, over 6,700 versions of songs have 
been recorded by the writer and a few collaborators — Messrs. 
E.-Z. Massicotte, Adelard Lambert, A. Godbout, Gustave Lanc- 
tot, and Father Arsenault. The songs were taken down in 
writing from various parts of Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, 
and New England, where Canadian emigrants are numerous; and 
about 4,000 melodies were recorded on the phonograph. In the 
same period, 3,000 records were made of Indian songs from all 
over the country. 
The folk-singers were talented; their memory was prolific; their 
stock of songs was novel and inexhaustible. But they never 
gave free rein to improvisation, never ventured into new paths. 
They did not compose poems and melodies, but simply repeated 
what they had learned in childhood. That improvisation to 
their knowledge never happened was repeatedly confirmed. True 
enough, they spoke of some poets of the backwoods who could 
string rhymes and stanzas together on a given theme to suit local 
demand. But these were mere individuals, without mystic 
powers. They plodded over their tasks and matched their lines 
to a familiar tune. The result was uncouth and commonplace. 
There was nowhere a fresh source of inspiration, only imitation, 
crude and slavish. 
It became obvious that a wide discrepancy existed between 
the actual facts and the theory of Grimm, still current in the 
English-speaking world, that folk-songs and perhaps tales are 
the fruit of collective inspiration. How puzzling it seemed 
when the Quebec singers were compared with American negroes 
