Legend

There was a man

With a colored coat of rags

Who left his body and blood on a tree.

But the thieves at his side gave the bones to the dogs

And the black-thorn cock sang merrily.

The lads of the town

Drank down to the dregs

Then took a sharp axe to lop the tree.

But the thieves had been there first gathering logs,

And the black-thorn cock sang steadily.

One day at dawn

Upon their nags

Twelve tinkers came and their hearts were free,

For they cut twelve whistles from the knuckles of the dogs,

To bear the black cock company.