I'll sing you one Ho.
Green Grow the Rushes, Oh
What is your one Ho?
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
I'll sing you two Ho.
Green Grow the Rushes, Oh
What is your two Ho?
Two, two the lily white boys, clothed all in green ho.
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
I'll sing you three Ho.
Green Grow the Rushes, Oh
What is your three Ho?
Three, three the rivals (Boom! Boom!)
Two, two the lily white boys, clothed all in green ho.
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
. . .
[Four for the gospel makers
Five for the cymbals at your door
Six for the six proud walkers
Seven for the seven stars in the sky
Eight for the April rainers
Nine for the nine bright shiners
Ten for the Ten Commandments
Eleven for the eleven that went to Heaven
Twelve for the twelve Apostles]
Many have wondered: what is the sense of the words ``oh'' and/or ``ho'' in the song? The sense is that that way the lines rhyme.
It's a folk song, so all the common variants that fit the tune ought to be considered valid. I.e., I disclaim responsibility for errors, since I insist there can't be any. a page compiled and served by R. Gary Hendra lists a Boy Scouts version.
There are probably five symbols at your door, but since I don't know what they are, it might as well be cymbals.
The song was apparently first printed in English County Songs: Words and Music by Lucy Etheldred Broadwood and J. A. Fuller-Maitland (London: J.B. Cramer, 1892, and New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1893). (This is late: Green Grow is supposed to be one of the Scots songs whose preservation was the ethnological work of Robert Burns, who died in 1796. Maybe I'm just confused and there are really two different songs.) [Note that the popular Rise Up Singing: The Group-Singing Song Book by Peter Blood and Annie Patterson (Bethlehem, Pa.: Sing Out Corp., 1988), gives the Broadwood/Fuller-Maitland title incorrectly, with the more intuitive ``Country'' in place of the correct ``County.'' Most library catalogs seem to have it correct, but this might be something to keep in mind for web searches.]