and that one called “The Nightingale,” are earlier in date and quite charming specimens of the class. XVIII. HUNTING AND SPORTING SONGS The folk-singer does not lack songs dealing with the sports he loves. The fox-and hare-hunting songs are in a degree reflexes of the eighteenth century ones—of great compass, and of much allusion to the Greek gods. It is in these that Diana, Aurora and Phœbus figure so largely. The folk-song that deals with hunting, generally is local in its narrative, and tells of some particular famous fox hunt or hare hunt, naming every squire or yeoman farmer that joined in it. “The Fylingdale Foxhunt” in _Traditional Tunes_ is a good and typical example. In the same work will be found “The White Hare” (a description of a hare hunt), and a song of a not very frequent type detailing a cock fight. XIX. SONGS OF LABOUR Primitive folk appear to have always had particular songs appropriate to specific kinds of labour. Such songs seem to have been traditionally associated with each class of work, and to have been used either to give a marked rhythm, by which the efforts of a number of people are united at a certain moment (as the pull upon a rope), or generally to lighten work, an effect which song certainly has. It is well known that girls in a weaving shop, or other factory, work twice as well and feel the strain lighter while they are singing in chorus some favourite song or hymn. Soldiers on the march are less tired if the men are allowed to sing, or while the band plays. The Irish regiments marched out of Brussels before Waterloo to the strains of the then popular Moore’s “Melodies,” “The Young May Moon” being among the favourites. The men of the North during the American Civil War were cheered by the song “John Brown’s Body,” and our own soldiers in South Africa sung, with deep meaning (considering that the Boers always managed to have the advantage of the crest of the hill), “All that ever I want is a little bit off the top.” Every great river of the world has its boat songs; in most cases used by the rowers as an aid to their work. Specimens of these river boat songs have been noted in China, India, on the Nile, and elsewhere. The well-known “Canadian Boat Song,” of Thomas Moore, was adapted by him from a chant he himself heard on the St Lawrence river, the original of which chant, by the way, differs materially from the version he published. The Sea Chanty is too wide a subject to be dealt with in this small volume. Its purpose is to give time to the pull of a rope, the thrust against a capstan bar, or on occasions when the pumps have to be used. The “Chanty” may be almost spoken of as obsolete. Its real home was the sailing vessel, but, at the present day, steam does so much of what formerly was man’s labour, that the chanty has almost died a natural death.