Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/102

 514 Oral Literature tation, homogeneous as they seem. The few indigenous pieces, attested as of cowboy. origin, are the most negligible and the weakest. They have little or no narrative element, are songs rather than ballads, have won no diffusion, and hold no promise of reaching better form or of assuming real ballad structure. The majority of the songs represent assimilated material, made over until the characters and the events conform to the horizon of the singers. In general, material from all sources, once in the stream of popular tradition, tends to accommo- date itself to the modes and the tastes of the community that preserves it. It is instructive to analyse the cowboy pieces, as a group, for the light that is thrown on the songs of a new community and on the processes of folk-song. Young Charlotte has been referred to as composed early in the nineteenth century in New England. Rattlesnake — A Ranch-Haying Song is a stuttering farce version of the New England Springfield Mountain. The Cowboy's Lament, known also as The Dying Cowboy, is a plainsman's adaptation oi An Unfortunate Rake, current in Ireland as early as 1 790. Its origin is reflected in the absurd request for a military funeral retained in the chorus : O beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly, Play the Dead March as you carry me along ; Take me to the graveyard, there lay the sod o'er me. For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong. Bury Me not on the Lone Prairie is an adaptation of Ocean Burial, by W. H. Saunders. The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim is an adaptation of Will S. Hays's The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane. Bonnie Black Bess, Fair Fannie Moore, Rosin the Bow, The Wars of Germany are from the Old World. The Old Man under the Hill is a Child piece. The Railroad Corral was composed by J. M. Hanson, and originally published in an Eastern periodical. The Ride of Billy Venero is made over from Eben E. Rexford's Ride of Paul Venarez, first published in The Youth's Companion, and once a popular declaiming piece. Home on the Range was a popular parlour song, while From Mar- kentura's Flowery Marge reflects the flowery sentimental day of American poetry. The Boston Burglar and McAffie's Con- fession are derivatives of Old World ballads ; and Jesse James,