ON THE TRAIL OF NEGRO FOLK-SONGS

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	CHILDREN'S GAME-SONGS	143
	THIS LADY SHE WEARS A DARK-GREEN SHAWL


	Now dance with your lover, honey, my love, Honey, my love! Honey, my love! Throw your arms round your lover, honey, my love, I love her to my heart! Farewell to your lover, honey, my love, Honey, my love! Honey, my love! Farewell to your lover, honey, my love, I love her to my heart!" There are many more of these games and songs which have never been set down in print and which are like to perish if they are not captured soon. Children to-day are singing them but little in comparison with those of the past, and since these old songs depend on oral transmission for their passing from one generation to another, it is easy to see how slight their hold is becoming. Children grow up so quickly now — and how can they remember what they do not know? Yet what a tragedy it is to let these precious folk-memories fade away, and to lose traditions and songs that have given pleasure for centuries! Parents and teachers and social workers could do a service of real value here, if they would set down these quaint and lively old game-songs as they learn them from children or find them in the recollections of older people. When they are once lost, how shall they be recaptured?