Lang. Three jovial Welshmen

From The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang, with illustrations by L. Leslie Brooke.

This is Roud 283.

 It is not really a classic type of chain tale, but as an example of folkloric repetition, I thought it was a very elegant formula!

THREE JOVIAL WELSHMEN

There were three jovial Welshmen,
As I have heard them say,
And they would go a-hunting
Upon St. David's day.

All the day they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But a ship a-sailing,
A-sailing with the wind.
   One said it was a ship;
   The other he said nay;
   The third said it was a house,
   With the chimney blown away.

And all the night they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But the moon a-gliding,
A-gliding with the wind.
   One said it was the moon;
   The other he said nay;
   The third said it was a cheese,
   And half o't cut away.

And all the day they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But a hedgehog in a bramble-bush,
And that they left behind.
   The first said it was a hedgehog;
   The second he said nay;
   The third it was a pin-cushion,
   And the pins stuck in wrong way.

And all the night they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But a hare in a turnip field,
And that they left behind.
   The first said it was a hare;
   The second he said nay;
   The third said it was a calf,
   And the cow had run away.

And all the day they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But an owl in a holly-tree,
And that they left behind.
   One said it was an owl;
   The other he said nay;
   The third said 'twas an old man,
   And his beard growing grey.