No chorus - the 2nd and 4th lines are a refrain and the whole thing is repeated over and over and over throughout the day and night.
The Oss used to be made out of sailcloth painted with pitch or tar sort of stuff - Padstow used to be a ship-building community - so it used to be very heavy, but these days the oss is made with much lighter, more modern stuff.
Imagine a large round table, about 6 foot across, throw a black table-cloth over it and that's the basic oss shape. Put a hole in the middle - slightly off centre, and put your head through the hole and lift it up with your shoulders. Then get a black witches hat thing that's so big it covers your whole face. That's the mask, painted black with red and white markings, big eyes, pointy ears, sharp teeth and, for the Blue Oss only, white whiskers. There are blue or red ribbons tied to the top - the pointy bit of the mask, depending on which oss you have. The main body of the oss has a long sort of broom handle thing poking out the front, with a stylised head attached at the end, with vicious 'snappers' in the mouth, and at the opposite side there is a whispy 'tail'. Only one person at a time can wear the oss but once in you can chase the girls and 'catch' them under your skirt. Very sexy! The oldest ones used to be very heavy but modern osses are much more manoeuvrable. The dancer doesn't quite fall down, usually just crouches in the most comfortable way he possibly can. He has to jump up again shortly after. And it's always a man - the girls can dance as 'teaser' but mustn't dance the oss - he is a stallion, after all!
The earliest picture of an oss isn't too different from today's ones but no-one knows for sure what the first one was like - perhaps a horse skin draped over the dancer, perhaps more like the Mari-lwyd. No, it's not like a morris horse and I don't think it ever was like that.
Oss Oss
Robyn