52. The Twelve Days of Christmas

52

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Another number song (hardly a carol, since there is nothing reli-
gious about it), preserving the memory of an earlier time when
the Christmas season extended from Christmas Day to the Feast
of the Epiphany, twelve days later. Cf. Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night. How far back the song goes the editor has not been able
to discover, but it has frequendy been reported from tradition in
recent years, both in Great Britain and the United States. See
BSM 512-13 and JAFL lxii 399-401. Lady Gomme has it in her
Traditional Games 11 315-21, and Rimbault in his Nursery Rhytnes
52-53. The series of gifts is pretty much the same in all texts.
The fact that two of our texts go back to the Northern states is
possibly symptomatic; it seems to be more widely known in the
North than in the South.

A
'Old Christmas Ballad.' Contributed by Miss Helen H. Sails of Ox-
ford, Granville county, in 1934, with the notation : "These verses were
given to me by my father, Dr. Alfred Sails, who in his boyhood learned
them from his father, Charles Sails, a native of Clarenceville, Province
of Quebec. My father told me that, after twenty years, he recalled
these old lines associated with his childhood in Burke, New York."

1 On the first day of Christmas beloved sent to me
A fine partridge on a pear tree.

2 On the second day of Christmas beloved sent to me

 

OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH 209

Two turtle doves

And a fine partridge on a pear tree.

The gifts are repeated, cumulatively, up to twelve, the twelfth stanza
running

On the twelfth day of Christmas beloved sent to me

Twelve ships sailing.

Eleven drums beating,

Ten ladies dancing,

Nine lords knitting,

Eight bulls roaring,

Seven swans swimming,

Six geese laying,

Five gold rings,

And four macumaboy,^

Three French horns,

And two turtle doves,

And a fine partridge on a pear tree.

 

The Twelve Days of Christmas.' Contributed by Mrs. J. R. Chamber-
lain of Raleigh in 1924, as sung by her husband's mother, Mrs. Ervilla
Chamberlain, from western New York, "whose people were Americans
of several generations at the time of the Revolution." This text is
cumulative in the same fashion as A, so that it will be sufficient to give
the last stanza :

The twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me

Twelve hunters hunting,

Eleven ladies leaping.

Ten tailors stitching,

Nine fiddlers fiddling,

Eight lords a-dancing.

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying.

Five gold rings.

Four Cornish birds.

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves.

And a partridge upon a pear tree.

C
'Twelve Days of Christmas.' Secured by Mrs. Sutton from the sing-
ing of Lizzie Fletcher of State Line Hill, Watauga county. She carried

* On this word Miss Sails notes : "As my father had no copy of these
verses, and recalled ihem only as he used to sing them in his boyhood,
I do not know the correct words for the phonetic 'macumaboy.' Per-
haps a kind of 'oboe' is indicated." The customary word in this place
is "colley birds" or "colored birds" ; sometimes, as in text B, "Cornish
birds."

 

2IO NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

the song only to the number nine. "This was all she knew. She said
there were three more gifts, all birds except the ninth. She did not
know what collie birds and French hens are. Neither do I." Mrs.
Sutton reports this only for the ninth day, as follows :

I partridge, 2 turtle doves, 3 collie birds, 4 French hens,
5 gold wrens, 6 geese a-feeding, 7 swans a-swimming,
8 nightingales a-singing, 9 deer a-running. . . .
--------------
 

 

52
The Twelve Days of Christmas

 

'The Twelve Days of Christmas.'^ Sung by Mrs. Ervilla Chamberlain. Re-
corded at Raleigh in 1924. The first two measures are used for all twelve days.
With each day, however, the presents increase as given below under ist, 2nd,
3rd, and 4th. The fifth begins, of course, with "Five gold rings," the sixth
with "Six geese a-laying," and the 12th day shows how all the previous days
are to be treated. Cf. FSEK 130, No. 87.

1

The following analysis of the scale as well as the structure is based on the
first two measures plus the 'i2th day' stanza.

Scale: Pentachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: abb^cd (2,4,4,2,3).

'The Twelve Days of Christmas.* Sung by Mrs. G. Watson. Recorded at
Boone, August 14, 1939. The measure "Three French hens" is used throughout
for all presents.

Scale: Hexatonic (4) plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aai (3,3). This
is based on 'The third day' phrase of six measures.