<P> The king sent his lady on the thirteenth Yule day, Three stalks o' merry corn, Three maids a-merry dancing, Three hinds a-merry hunting, An Arabian baboon, Three swans a-merry swimming, Three ducks a-merry laying, A bull that was brown, Three goldspinks, Three starlings, A goose that was grey, Three plovers, Three partridges, A pippin go aye; Wha learns my carol and carries it away? </P> <P> "Pippin go aye" (also spelled "papingo - aye" in later editions) is a Scots word for peacock or parrot . </P> <P> In the Faroe Islands, there is a comparable counting Christmas song . The gifts include: one feather, two geese, three sides of meat, four sheep, five cows, six oxen, seven dishes, eight ponies, nine banners, ten barrels, eleven goats, twelve men, thirteen hides, fourteen rounds of cheese and fifteen deer . These were illustrated in 1994 by local cartoonist Óli Petersen (born 1936) on a series of two stamps issued by the Faroese Philatelic Office . </P> <P> "Les Douze Mois" ("The Twelve Months") (also known as "La Perdriole"--"The Partridge") is another similar cumulative verse from France that has been likened to The Twelve Days of Christmas . Its final verse, as published in de Coussemaker, Chants Populaires des Flamands de France (1856), runs as follows: </P>

Different versions of the 12 days of christmas