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King Pharim

[ Roud 306 ; Child 55 ; Ballad Index C055 ; trad.]

The Watersons sang King Pharim in 1975 on their album For Pence and Spicy Ale. A.L. Lloyd commented in the sleeve notes:

Ordinary folk kept alive many gospel legends rejected by the parsons. Among them, the humorous tale of the roasted cock that discomfited Herod by crowing in his face, and the sly trick of the miraculous harvest by which the holy family evaded Herod's pursuit. Most of the Watersons' version is as noted by Lucy Broadwood from gipsy men in Surrey. The concluding verses originally appeared on a 19th century broadside, The Carnal and the Crane. The Oxford Book of Carols was the Watersons' source.

Lyrics

The Watersons sing King Pharim

King Pharim sat a-musing
And a-musing all alone.
There came a blessed Saviour
And all to him unknown.

Saying “Where did you come from good man,
And where did you then pass?”
It was out of the land of Egypt,
Between an ox and ass.

Well if you come out of Egypt, man,
One thing I fain would know.
Whether a blessed Saviour
Sprang from an Holy Ghost.

For if it is true, is true good man,
What you've been telling me,
This roasted cock, that's in the dish,
Shall crow full fences three.

Well the cock soon feathered and he grew soon well,
By the work of God's own hand.
Three times that roasted cock did crow
In the dish where he did stand.

Joseph, Jesus, and Mary
Were a-travelling further West
When Mary grew a-tired,
She might sit down and rest.

They travelled further and further,
The weather being so warm,
Until they came upon a husbandman
A-sowing of his corn.

“Come husbandman,” cried Jesus,
“Throw all your seed away
And carry home your ripened corn,
That you've been a-sowing this day.”

By there came King Herod,
With his train so furiously,
Enquiring of the husbandman
Whether Jesus had passed by.

Well the truth it must be spoken,
And the truth it must be known.
For Jesus he passed by this way
Just as me seed was sown.

But now I have it rippen
And some laid in my wain
Ready to fetch and carry
Into my barn again.

“Turn back then,” said the captain.
Our labour's all in vain.
Tis full three quarters of the year
Since he his seed has sown.

So Herod was deceived
By the work of God's own hand.
No further he proceeded
Into the Holy Land.

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Garry Gillard.
A similar version is at in the Digital Tradition.