Une 'Tite Poule Grasse ou la Fille Ainee' [A 'Little Fat Chicken or The Eldest Daughter']: A comparative analysis of Cajun and Creole Mardi Gras songs

A common aspect of rural Louisiana Mardi Gras is the Courir du Mardi Gras ( Mardi Gras Run), a begging quest in which a band of costumed merrymakers tr avel house-to- house to solicit donations of food and money to provision a communal feast. The songs associated with the Mardi Gras run fall into two broad categories: those derived from continental French and French Canadian drinking songs and others with origins in continental French and French Ca nadian begging songs. Both forms represent combinations of direct survivals of earlier song texts, slight modifications that occurred through generati ons of oral transmission, and significant changes introduced because of the desire to develop distinct local song variants.