No matter for how long they had been singing them, the people of Tarascon had no desire to change them.

They were handed down in families from father to son and nobody dared to interfere with them, they were sacrosanct.

They were never even borrowed.

It would never occur to the Bezuquets to sing the Costecaldes' song or to the Costecaldes to sing that of the Bezuquets.

You might suppose that having known them for some forty years they might sometimes sing them to themselves, but no, everyone stuck to his own.
In the matter of ballads, as in that of hats, Tartarin played a leading role.