A
Christmas carol about an incident in which
St. Stephen caused
Herod's meal to stand up and proclaim "
Christ is born!" (
Christus natus est! sounds more like
Cock-a-doodle-doo than its English equivalent.)
(The Merry Pranksters can't hold a candle to the early saints!)
The full ballad has 30 verses, but it is more commonly condensed, as The Watersons have done in this version:
There was a star in David's land,
in David's land appeared;
and in king Herod's bedroom
so bright it did shine there.
The Wise Men they soon spied it,
they told the king on high,
that a princely babe was born that night,
no man could ever destroy.
If this be true, king Herod said,
that you being telling me,
this roasted fowl that's in the dish
shall crow full fences three.
Well the fowl soon feathered and thrustened well,
by the work of God's own hands,
three times that roasted cock did crow
in the dish where he did stand.
SOURCE:
http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/~gillard/watersons/frostnn.html
http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/~gillard/watersons/herod.html