Méthode suivie dans la notation et dans la rédaction des textes et des

12. L'hirondelle messagère des amours (première variante) 13. L'hirondelle messagère des amours (deuxième variante) 1. Sa beauté a su me charmer.

15. Sommeilles-tu, ma petite Louison? 16. Cette aimable tourterelle

17. Ingrate beauté, insensible bergère

18. La bergère et le fils du grand seigneur.

19. Les loups viendront . .

20. La fille qui veut se marier

21. Je ne veux pas me marier

22. Le lendemain des noces

23-26. La parvenue qui se mire.

27. La mariée aux membres postiches

28. Silence! il va chanter.

29. Buvons, chantons et rions bien

30. L'amour nous mène

31. La prison du Gourmand.

32. Dans les temps des fêtes .

33. La bistringue . .

34. La petite souris grise.

35. La randonnée de la ville de Paris.

iii

(b) CONTES DE CHICOUTIMI ET DE LA MALBAIE.

(c) CONTES DE CHARLEVOIX ET DE CHICOUTIMI.
Par C.-MARIUS BARBEAU.

84. La princesse du Tomboso

85. La tête..

86. Le grand sultan

87. Le ruban bleu

88. Les bossus.

89. Le bâton d'or

90. Robert et son sac

91. Le spectre .

THE JOURNAL OF

AMERICAN FOLK-LORE.

VOL. 32.-APRIL-JUNE, 1919.-No. 124.

THE FIELD OF EUROPEAN FOLK-LORE IN AMERICA.1

BY C. MARIUS BARBEAU.

RATHER than rest content with the folk-lore results already achieved in the field, and confine our attention to closet-studies, we might be well advised, in the present period of reconstruction, to direct our energies to the systematic survey of the neglected avenues of European folk-tradition in America. To the inquisitive mind of many a scholar the vast and unexplored resources of that subject, when clearly indicated, should offer an irresistible appeal.

The leading members of this Society have long been aware of the vistas for research in folk ethnography and lore on this continent. If I venture here to make a brief mention of the sources of unrecorded information, it is not that I expect to add materially to their knowledge. But as our keen desire for expansion and sounder methods in our pursuit is far from being widely appreciated and supported, it may be useful at times to review comprehensively our aims, explore new horizons, and re-examine why and how we should best utilize the sadly-forsaken domain of science intrusted to our keeping.

Under a deceptive appearance of uniformity and barrenness, the mentality of the Neo-American people is still endowed with various patrimonies of Old-World tradition. The complexity and extent of that heritage are derived not merely from the diversity of races that have invaded the new continent since the discovery, but also from their contacts with the native tribes.

Among what we may call the "primary sources" of intrusive folktradition here, the Spanish, the French, and the British elements -respectively located in the southwest, the northeast, and the centre are the oldest and foremost. Their vitality and ancestral traits have to this day been preserved in their distinct geographic spheres.

1 Address of the retiring President, delivered at the thirtieth annual meeting of the American Folk-Lore Society, held in Baltimore, Dec. 29, 1918.

* Compare "On the Field and Work of a Journal of American Folk-Lore" (JAFL I (1888): 3-7).

While the British-American domain has in recent times greatly increased, that of the French has either shrunk or been split into several isolated sections. Outside of the larger Quebec group, we now find insular-like French settlements in the Maritime Provinces of Canada (The Acadians),1 in Louisiana,2 on the Detroit River, and at several points of the Northwest. The recession of the Spanish culture in the Southwest has also left a number of persistent vestiges as far north as Texas and northern California.5

Although more modern, the primary source of intrusive German oral tradition in Pennsylvania is of importance. After the establishment of the now-submerged Dutch and Swedish settlements on the Delaware and the Hudson Rivers (1638-55), the Krefelders came to Philadelphia, in 1683, and formed the nucleus of the Pennsylvania

1 The Acadians are outwardly somewhat different from the Quebec French-Canadians; their dialectical nuances, for one thing, seem to point to the fact that their French ancestors were from other provinces of France than those of the Quebec group.

The French group in Louisiana is likely to be a complex one; many settlers there originally, or even recently, proceeded from Quebec and Detroit, while others are Acadians in origin. A Louisiana Acadian, M. Edmond Montet, has recently written to us: ". . . Il y a en Louisiane toute une mine pour un folkloriste canadien. La survivance acadienne s'est manifestée là avec autant de fécondité qu'au pays des aïeux. La littérature Louisianaise mérite d'être passée en revue. Bien d'autres écrivains que M. Alcée Fortier ont étudié la légende et l'histoire de ce pays. Connaissez-vous 'Le destin d'un brin de mousse' de Mlle Laure Andry, une acadienne; les 'Réminiscences acadiennes' de M. le juge Félix Voorhies, etc., sur ces mêmes sujets?" The late Alcée Fortier (Louisiana Folk-Tales, MAFLS 2 [1895]: V, IX; also JAFL) has published material from Louisiana in the Creole dialect, which he describes thus: "The dialect spoken by the negroes of Lower Louisiana, and known by philologists as the Creole dialect, . . . is not merely a corruption of French ; it is a real idiom with a morphology and grammar of its own" (p. X); ". . . The Louisiana folk-tales were brought over to this country by Europeans and Africans" (p. IX).

...

The origin of the French settlement on the Detroit River dates back to 1701. The French-speaking population there now numbers about twenty thousand.

In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Washington.

See Los Pastores, a Mexican play of the Nativity . . . notes by M. R. Cole (MAFLS 9 [1907]: IX-XI). Says Mr. Cole: "The popular production of an old Miracle Play on American soil, at the end of the nineteenth century, is really surprising, and brings home the fact that no inconsiderable part of the population of Texas is still Mexican in everything but the name."-"Father Parisot in his Reminiscences also refers to it as one of the traditional plays introduced by the early Franciscan Friars, and still performed at Christmas time in Mexico and on the American side of the Rio Grande."

...

See the "Jersey Dutch Dialect," by J. D. Prince (reprinted from Dialect Notes, 3 [pt. 6, 1910]: 459). We quote: "Jersey' or 'Bergen County Dutch' is the usual name for the vernacular of the descendants of the original Netherland settlers in old Bergen County, N.J. . Up to thirty years ago, this was the common idiom of many rural districts in Northern New Jersey, employed alike by Dutch, English, German and French settlers... (It) now survives only in the memories of some two hundred old persons, nearly all of whom are over seventy years of age." "The Jersey Dutch was originally the South Holland or Flemish language, which in the course of centuries (ca. 1630-1880) became mixed with and partially influenced by English."