Children Go Where I Send Thee – Songs of the Twelve Numbers and the Hebrew Chant of Echod Mi Yodea The song was well known in many sections of Europe as early as the sixteenth century, when it first appeared as an addition to the German Jewish Passover Haggadah, and may have existed as a Jewish folk song some time before it was printed. A Latin version from a 1630 manuscript lists two testaments, three Patriarchs, four evangelists, five books of Moses, six vessels (of Cana) etc. Jean Ritchie, best-known member of the Ritchie Family of Kentucky, who have been singing authentic folk songs for generations, made this charming carol known to the world. It had been discovered in Kentucky in a country school for black children, where it may have been sung for the past three centuries. The verses, which sound like a child’s counting game, actually tell the children of God how to go about preaching the gospel Another version of this same carol also exists, thought to have been brought to the United States by Cornishmen who worked in the copper mines along Lake Superior.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
