This is a 'ritornella,' the whole being repeated over as each
new sentence is added. I remember, years ago, meeting the same in
Wiltshire, and then there was this additional refrain to be repeated:
'When want is all the go;
And it evermore shall be so.'
Then it went on:
'I'll sing you three O;
Three O are rivo.'
If I remember right, there were no numbers before three-o. Four, were
the four Evangelists, and nine, the nine orders of angels, as in the
text; but the seventh line was 'seven are the seven bright stars in
the sky,' and this, taken in connexion with the text, establishes a
curious link in popular mythology between the mysterious Seven-branch
Candlestick and the Pleïades. Subjoined is a translation of the text.
'One, and first, is the Lord God, ever ready to help us.' ('Domeniddio'
is a popular way of naming God, like the French 'le bon Dieu,'
identical with the German 'unser Herrgott.') [224]
'Two stands for the keys of heaven. There is gold.' (This would be
the literal rendering of this line, but it has manifestly been lamed
by bad memory.) [225]
'Three stands for three patriarchs, &c.' [226]
'Four stands for the four columns which support the world, &c.' [227]
'Five stands for the five wounds of Jesus Christ.' [228]
'Six stands for the six cocks which crowed in Galilee.' [229]
'Seven are the seven tapers that burnt in Jerusalem.' ('Cantorno' for
cantarono, a vulgar transposition, like 'hunderd,' and 'childern,' in
English; 'ardorno' similarly, instead of 'arderono,' though 'arsero'
would be the correct form.) [230]
'Eight' stands for the octave of Christ. (Probably in allusion to the
'octave,' or eight days' festival, of Christmas.) [231]
'Nine' stands for the nine quires of angels. [232]
'Ten' stands for the ten years of Christ. (What 'ten years' it is
not easy to see.) [233]
'Eleven' stands for the crowning with thorns. (St. Bridget or Soeur
Emmerich, in their minute meditations or 'Revelations' on the Passion,
have fixed a number for the thorns in our Lord's crown, but I do
not remember what they make it; there may be a tradition that it was
eleven.) [234]
'Twelve' stands for the Twelve Apostles. [235]