Quebec Folksong, La y'ou c'qu'i sont tous les raft-mans?

One of Canada's authorities on folk music, Edith Fowke, defined folk songs this way: "A genuine folk song is not a song written within recent memory for commercial profit, but rather a song handed down by oral tradition, usually of unknown authorship and found in more than one version - since as with anything passed on by word of mouth or ear, no two people remember it exactly the same way." Canadians have a rich trove of folk music and these important links with our past are now celebrated in four commemorative stamps, each featuring a different song. This is the fourth and last issue in the popular Canadian folklore series. Folk songs cover a wide range of topics, including love, war, disasters, and everyday work. They also include ballads, dancing songs, even lullabies and children's game songs. The second stamp in this issue deals with the lumbering trade. Depicting life in the woods, "Les Raftmans" is an Ottawa valley song dating from the latter part of the 19th century. Marius Barbeau, a well-known folklorist and pioneer in collecting songs, noted that it was probably the happiest of the French-Canadian lumbermen's songs. Both French and English versions of the song can be found in the book, "Canada's Story in Song."