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PREFACE

    This publication contains a selection of Tamil folk-songs collected by the late Mr. Percy Macqueen, I.C.S., and presented by him to the University Library Madras. This Manuscript therefore does not belong to the Saraswathi Mahal Library. Its publication was taken up because it was selected for publication by the Selection Committee appointed by the Government. They represent the product of the exuberant fancy of untutored and unfettered imagination of labourers. The struggle for expression of poetic fancy among the uncultured and unbridled youth often ends in ribaldry.

    A good number of songs had thus to be eschewed from the collection when making the selection. The collection has however a special value for students of Sociology. Fine strokes of fancy are however not wanting in the collection.

    Sri K.V. Jagannathan, the Editor of Kalaimagal, well-known for his Tamil scholarship has bestowed his time and labour in selecting the pieces for the collection and contributing an introduction on "Folk Songs in Tamil". Our thanks are due to him for his valuable services.

    We are grateful to the Government of Madras for their generous grants that have helped us to publish this and other valuable manuscripts of this Library.