Digital Tradition Mirror

Three Jolly Welshmen

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Three Jolly Welshmen

Three jolly Welshmen and jolly boys were they.
They went a'hunting on St. Patrck's Day.
Look a-there now!
They hunted and they whooped, and the first thing they did find
Was a barn in a meadow, and that they left behind.
Look a-there now;
One said it was a barn, and the other he said nay,
One said it was a haystack with the top blown away.
Look a-there now!

They hunted and they whooped, and the next thing they did find
Was a frog in the well, and that they left behind.
Look a-there now!
One said it was a frog, and the other he said nay,
One said it was a jaybird with his feathers washed away,
Look a-there now!
They hunted and they whooped, and the next thing they did find
Was a pig in the lane and that they left behind.
Look a-there now!
One said it was a pig, and the other he said nay,
One said it was an elephant with its trunk cut away,
Look a-there now!

They hunted and they whooped and the next thing they did find
Was a babe in the woods and that they left behind.
Look a-there now!
One said it was a babe, and the other he said nay,
One said it was a monkey with the tail cut away.
Look a-there now!
They hunted and they whooped, and the next thing they did find
Was the moon in the elements and that they left behind.
Look a-there now!
One said it was the moon, the other he said nay,
One said it was a cheese with a half cut away,
Look a-there now!

They hunted and they whooped, and the next thing they did find
Was a woman in the kitchen and that they left behind.
Look a-there now!
One said it was a woman, and the other he said nay,
One said it was an angel with the wings cut away.
Look a-there now!
They hunted and they whooped, and the next thing they did find
Was an owl in an ivy bush and that they left behind.
Look a-there now!
One said it was an owl, and the other he said nay,
One said it was the Devil, and they all ran away.
Look a-there now!

Note: one version of a real old one: first found in sixteenth
century play attributed (partially) to Shakespeare (The Two Noble
Kinsmen) This version from Southern Folk Ballads, McNeill;
collected From Mrs Annie Stevenson, TN, 1954
DT #315
RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!