En Roulant Ma Boule

DESCRIPTION: French: "En roulant ma boule roulant...." Typical plot: Three ducks are paddling. A prince comes to hunt. Though he aims for a black duck, he hits the white one with its diamond eyes and its golden feathers. The owner is upset
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: bird hunting nonsense foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 56-57, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 26-28, "En roulant ma boule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 41, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 49, "As I Roll My Rolling Ball" (1 English text, 1 tune, translated by Tobitt)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 64-65, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 129-133, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Older, "En Roulante" (on LOlder01)
NOTES [70 words]: Said to have originated in the fifteenth century. Bastardized versions are common, probably due to the song's popularity. Fowke reports, "[This] is probably the most popular of French-Canadian songs. Marius Barbeau has listed ninety-two different Canadian versions which all tell much the same story but differ widely in melody and refrain." Its popularity with the voyageurs may help explain its wide distribution. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FJ056

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