Thy bad father is at the inn;
Oh! the shame of it, and the sin!
Home at midnight he will fare,
Drunk with strong wine of Navarre.
After each verse the singer repeats again and again: Lo lo, lo lo, on three lingering notes that have the plaintive monotony of the chiming of bells where there are but three in the belfry.
Almost as dismal as the Basque ditty is the English nursery rhyme:
Bye, O my baby!
When I was a lady
O then my poor baby didn't cry;
But my baby is weeping