Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/462

 1 1 4 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

customary for minstrels to chant at a funeral feast the manner of departure of the dead man and the exploits of his ancestors. But on this head opinion must be tentative ; perhaps further information and inquiry may bring light.

These songs, of which the history can definitely be traced, may very well represent what took place on a larger scale. A whole class of ballads might owe their origin to similar practices. But in the case of English ballads, the matter is complicated by the consid- eration of their international quality. Any important and widely diffused song, not too definitely attached to the soil, is liable to mi- grate from tongue to tongue, and ordinarily does so migrate. We have a situation answering to that of language, or of the games of children. Words and plays may be constructed indefinitely, but it is not necessary to invent them, because a stock answering all pur- poses already exists. New words and new games are continually coming into being, but are repressed by the existing growth which already occupies the ground. There are many old English ballads which describe the circumstances of the death of the hero, and which might have originated as did the song of Isaac Orcutt ; but it by no means follows that they did so originate. It is something, however, to exhibit the inventive capacity which would be adequate to supply the existing stock, even though its presence may otherwise be ex- plained ; such productiveness is illustrated by the New England ballads, which therefore offer an important contribution to ballad literature ; and it is to be hoped that a more complete gathering may be made of such compositions.

Passing to ballads of the ancient type, and presumably composed in the fourteenth century or earlier, it may be said that the pages of this Journal, as well as the collection of Professor Child, have con- tained a sufficient number of American versions of such ballads to show that they survived in considerable number among the English in the new world.

The ballads which have hitherto been cited are of modern origin. It has already been set forth that English ballads deserving the title of ancient must be considered, in general, to have an origin earlier than the sixteenth century. These songs have usually been consid- ered to belong exclusively to Scotland, or to the border country. For the most part, however, they are in reality English, and have been familiar in England ; that they have been recorded in Scotland, and are characterized by Scottish dialect, depends only upon the greater persistence of tradition in an isolated region ; they have sur- vived in Scotland, and been forgotten in English counties, where they once were familiar. Whether as the result of old English in- heritance, or in consequence of communication by Scotch immigrants,

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