Monday, October 31, 2005

Three Men They Went A-Hunting

Ever since my exhaustion- and elation-addled brain led me to sing "Whisky in the Jar" to The Lad the day he was born, it has become a tradtion that my lullabies for him are folk and drinking songs. I know, not exactly the most elegant of traditions, but he has really taken to them. So far, my repertoire has expanded to include Danny Boy, Finnegan's Wake, The Minstrel Boy, and one other song. It was a song my father taught me as a boy, and he learned it from his father. Doing a Google search, I discovered other variants of it, but this is the version he sang to me:

Three men they went a-hunting, to see what they could find.
They came across a haystack, and that they left behind,
The Englishman says, "It's a haystack",
The Scotsman he says "Nay",
The Irishman says "It's a Schoolhouse with its windows all blown away".

Chorus:
And so they rambled,
They rambled,
They rabled all around.
In and out the town and still they rambled,
They rambled 'till the butchers cut 'em down.

Three men they went a-hunting, to see what they could find.
They came across a steamboat, and that they left behind,
The Englishman says, "It's a steamboat",
The Scotsman he says "Nay",
The Irishman says "It's a locomotive taking a bath in the bay".

Chorus

Three men they went a-hunting, to see what they could find.
They came across a bullfrog, and that they left behind,
The Englishman says, "It's a bullfrog",
The Scotsman he says "Nay",
The Irishman says "It's a canary bird with its feathers all blown away".

Chorus

Three men they went a-hunting, to see what they could find.
They came across a tollgate, and that they left behind,
The Englishman says, "It's a tollgate",
The Irishman he says "Nay",
The Scotsman says "It's the end of the road, so we'll go the other way".

Chorus

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