MARINER'S HYMN

Hail you! And where did you come from? Hallelujah. (repeat)
Oh I’m come from the land of Egypt, Hallelujah. (repeat)

Hail you! And where are you bound for? (repeat)
Oh I’m bound for the land of Canaan. (repeat)

Notes: Dialogue songs like this were frequently sung in eighteenth century American churches. The men sat on one side, the women on the other (as they still do in some sections of the country), and they sang back and forth. Further stanzas of this song ask such questions as:

What is your cargo?
What is your compass?
Where is your harbor?

Children can improvise Christmas stanzas - hailing the shepherds, the wise men, Mary, or Joseph.

Source: American Folk Songs for Christmas, by Ruth Crawford Seeger, p. 55 (Doubleday & Company, 1955)

From Down-East Spirituals, by George Pullen Jackson, 1941 (page 254) - quoted from The Milennial Harp, by Joshua V. Hines, 1843 (page 39)

It sounds like MacColl is singing this song on American Folk Songs for Christmas

As a second verse, MacColl sings:

Hail you! And where are you bound for? (repeat)
Oh I’m bound for the land of glory. (repeat)

And then sings Canaan as a third verse.

This song is Roud 18282. It's not yet listed in the Traditional Ballad Index or the Digital Tradition.