Rudyard Kiplin tt^ Sv UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO X THE FIVE NATIONS The Five Nations By Rudyard Kipling NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. 1903 Copyright, igoj, by Rudyard Kipling Published, October, ig THE CAXTON PRESS Vzw TOEK CUT, 17. 8, A. DEDICATION Before a midnight breaks in storm, Or herded sea in wrath, Ye know what wavering gusts inform The greater tempest's path; Till the loosed wind Drive all from mind, Except Distress, which, so will prophets cry, O'ercame them, houseless, from the unhinting sky Ere rivers league against the land In piratry of flood, Ye know what waters slip and stand Where seldom water stood. Yet who will note, Till fields afloat, And washen carcass and the returning well, Trumpet what these poor heralds strove to tell ? Ye know who use the Crystal Ball (To peer by stealth on Doom), vi DEDICATION The Shade that, shaping first of all, Prepares an empty room. Then doth It pass Like breath from glass, But, on the extorted vision bowed intent, No man considers why It came or went. Before the years reborn behold Themselves with stranger eye, And the sport-making Gods of old, Like Samson slaying, die, Many shall hear The all-pregnant sphere, Bow to the birth and sweat, but speech denied Sit dumb or dealt in part fall weak and wide. Yet instant to fore-shadowed need The eternal balance swings; That winged men the Fates may breed So soon as Fate hath wings. These shall possess Our littleness, And in the imperial task (as worthy) lay Up our lives' all to piece one giant day. CONTENTS DEDICATION Before a midnight breaks in storm, . v THE SEA AND THE HILLS Who hath desired the Sea? the sight of salt water unbounded, . i THE BELL BUOY They christened my brother of old, . 4 CRUISERS As our mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine, 8 THE DESTROYERS The strength of twice three thousand horse, n WHITE HORSES Where run your colts at pasture ? . 15 THE SECOND VOYAGE We've sent our little Cupids all ashore, 20 vii viii THE FIVE NATIONS PAGE THE DYKES We have no heart for the fishing, we have no hand for the oar, . . 23 THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ The God of Fair Beginnings, . . 28 THE BROKEN MEN For things we never mention, . 34 THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN Now the Four-way Lodge is opened, now the Hunting Winds are loose, 38 THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR Yearly, with tent and rifle, our care- less white men go, . . . 44 THE OLD MEN This is our lot if we live so long and labour unto the end, ... 49 THE EXPLORER " There's no sense in going further it's the edge of cultivation," . . 52 THE WAGE-SLAVES Oh glorious are the guarded heights, 60 CONTENTS ix PAGE THE BURIAL When that great Kings return to clay, 63 GENERAL JOUBERT With those that bred, with those that loosed the strife, ... 65 THE PALACE When I was a King and a Mason a Master proven and skilled, . . 66 SUSSEX God gave all men all earth to love, . 69 SONG OF THE WISE CHILDREN When the darkened Fifties dip to the North 74 76 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN Take up the White Man's burden, . 79 PHARAOH AND THE SERGEANT Said England unto Pharaoh, " I must make a man of you, ... 82 OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS A Nation spoke to a Nation, . . 87 x THE FIVE NATIONS MM " ET DONA FERENTES " In extended observation of the ways and works of man, ... 90 KITCHENER'S SCHOOL Oh Hubshee, carry your shoes in your hand and bow your head on your breast, ..... 95 THE YOUNG QUEEN Her hand was still on her sword-hilt, the spur was still on her heel, . 100 RIMMON Duly with knees that feign to quake, 104 THE OLD ISSUE "Here is nothing new nor aught unproven," say the Trumpets, . 107 BRIDGE-GUARD IN THE KARROO Sudden the desert changes, . . 113 THE LESSON Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should, . . . .117 THE FILES Files, a . . 121 CONTENTS xi PAQB THE REFORMERS Not in the camp his victory lies, . 126 DIRGE OP DEAD SISTERS Who recalls the twilight and the ranged tents in order, . . . 129 THE ISLANDERS No doubt but ye are the People your throne is above the King's, . . 133 THE PEACE OF DIVES The Word came down to Dives in Torment where he lay, . . 141 SOUTH AFRICA Lived a woman wonderful, . . 149 THE SETTLER Here, where my fresh-turned furrows run, . . 153 Service Songs CHANT-PAGAN Me that 'ave been what I ve been, . 159 M. I. I wish my mother could see me now, with a fence-post under my arm, . 163 xii THE FIVE NATIONS PAQK COLUMNS Out o' the wilderness, dusty an* dry, 170 THE PARTING OF THE COLUMNS We've rode and fought and ate and drunk as rations come to hand, . 175 TWO KOPJES Only two African kopjes, . . . 179 THE INSTRUCTOR At times when under cover I 'ave said 183 BOOTS We're foot slog slog slog slog- gin' over Africa, . . . . 185 THE MARRIED MAN The bachelor 'e fights for one, . . 188 LICHTENBERG Smells are surer than sounds or sights, . . . . . 191 STELLENBOSH The General 'card the firm' on the flank, 194 HALF-BALLAD OF WATERVAL When by the labour of my 'ands, . 197 CONTENTS xiii PAOB PIET I do not love my Empire's foes, . 199 "WILFUL-MISSING" There is a world outside the one you know, 204 UBIQUE There is a word you often see, pro- nounce it as you may, . . . 206 THE RETURN Peace is declared, an' I return, . . 210 RECESSIONAL God of our fathers, known of old, . 214 THE FIVE NATIONS THE SEA AND THE HILLS WHO hath desired the Sea ? the sight of salt water unbounded The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded ? The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, grey, foamless, enormous, and growing Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy- eyed hurricane blowing His Sea is no showing the same his Sea and the same 'neath each showing His Sea as she slackens or thrills ? So and no otherwise so and no otherwise hill- men desire their Hills ! Who hath desired the Sea? the immense and contemptuous surges? The shudder, the stumble, the swerve, as the star-stabbing bowsprit emerges? 2 THE FIVE NATIONS The orderly clouds of the Trades, and the ridged, roaring sapphire thereunder Unheralded cliff-haunting flaws and the head- sail's low-volleying thunder His Sea in no wonder the same his Sea and the same through each wonder: His Sea as she rages or stills ? So and no otherwise so and no otherwise hill- men desire their Hills. Who hath desired the Sea ? Her menaces swift as her mercies, The in-rolling walls of the fog and the silver- winged breeze that disperses ? The unstable mined berg going South and the calvings and groans that declare it ; White water half -guessed overside and the moon breaking timely to bear it; His Sea as his fathers have dared his Sea as his children shall dare it His Sea as she serves him or kills ? So and no otherwise so and no otherwise hill- men desire their Hills. THE SEA AND THE HILLS 3 Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather Than forecourts of kings, and her outermost pits than the streets where men gather Inland, among dust, under trees inland where the slayer may slay him Inland, out of reach of her arms, and the bosom whereon he must lay him His Sea at the first that betrayed at the last that shall never betray him His Sea that his being fulfils ? So and no otherwise so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills. THE BELL BUOY THEY christened my brother of old And a saintly name he bears They gave him his place to hold At the head of the belfry-stairs, Where the minster-towers stand And the breeding kestrels cry. Would I change with my brother a league inland ? (Shoal! 'Ware shoal!) Not I! In the flush oi the hot June prime, iSUttJI _ O er smooth flood-tides afire, I hear him hurry the chime To the bidding of checked Desire ; Till the sweated ringers tire And the wild bob-majors die. YvAi*JL\wv>>aL Could I wait for my turn in the godly choir ? (Slioal ! 'Ware shoal /) Not I ! Cojijrifbt, 1896, bj Rudjwd Kipling THE BELL BUOY 5 When the smoking scud is blown, When the greasy wind-rack lowers, Apart and at peace and alone, He counts the changeless hours. He wars with darkling Powers (I war with a darkling sea); Would he stoop to my work in the gusty mirk ? (Shoal ! 'Ware shoal /) Not he ! There was never a priest to pray, There was never a hand to toll, When they made me guard of the bay, And mqpred me over the shoal. I rock, I reel, and I roll My four great hammers ply- Could I speak or be still at the Church's will ? (Shoal I 'Ware shoal /) Not I ! The landward marks have failed, The fog-bank glides unguessed, The seaward lights are veiled, The spent deep feigns her rest: But my ear is laid to her breast, 6 THE FIVE NATIONS I lift to the swell I cry ! S. .- , Could I wait in sloth 6n the Church's oath ? (Shoal ! 'Ware shoal /) Not I ! At the careless end of night I thrill to the nearing screw, I turn in the nearing light And I call to the drowsy crew ; And the mud boils foul and blue As the blind bow backs away. Will they give me their thanks if they clear the banks ? (Shoal! 'Ware shoal!) Not they! The beach-pools cake and skim, The bursting spray -heads freeze, I gather on crown and rim The grey^ grained ice of the seas, Where, sheathed from bitt to trees, The plunging colliers lie. Would I barter my place for the Church's grace ? (Shoal ! 'Ware shoal !) Not I ! THE BELL BUOY 7 Through the blur of the whirling snow, Or the black of the inky sleet, The lanterns gather and grow, And I look for the homeward fleet. Rattle of block and sheet \ "Ready about stand by!" [ViJ Shall I ask them a fee ere they fetch the quay ? (Shoal ! Ware shoal /) Not I ! SvjvoK I dip ' and I surge and I swing In the rip of the racing tide, By the gates of doom I sing, On the horns of death I ride. A ship-length overside, Between the course and the sand, Fretted and bound I bide Peril whereof I cry. Would I change with my brother a league inland ? (Shoal ! 'Ware shoal /) Not I ! CRUISERS As our mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine, Made play for her bully the Ship of the Line ; So we, her bold daughters by iron and fire, Accost and decoy to our masters' desire. Now pray you consider what toils we endure, Night-walking wet sea-lanes, a guard and a lure; Since half of our trade is that same pretty sort As mettlesome wenches do practise in port. For this is our office: to spy and make room, As hiding yet guiding the foe to their doom; Surrounding, confounding, to bait and betray And tempt them to battle the seas' width away. The pot-bellied merchant foreboding no wrong With headlight and sidelight he lieth along, Till, lightless and lightfoot and lurking, leap we To force him discover his business by sea. Cop/ilght, ISM'J, by Rudjird Kipling CRUISERS 9 And when we have wakened the lust of a foe, To draw him by flight toward our bullies we go, Till, 'ware of strange smoke stealing nearer, he flies Or our bullies close in for to make him good prize. So, when we have spied on the path of their host, One flieth to carry that word to the coast ; And, lest by false doubling they turn and go free, One lieth behind them to follow and see. Anon we return, being gathered again, Across the sad valleys all drabbled with rain Across the grey ridges all crisped and curled To join the long dance round the curve of the world. The bitter salt spindrift : the sun -glare likewise : The moon-track a-quiver bewilders our eyes, Where, linking and lifting, our sisters we hail 'Twixt wrench of cross-surges or plunge of head- gale. As maidens awaiting the bride to come forth Make play with light jestings and wit of no worth, io THE FIVE NATIONS So, widdershins circling the bride-bed of death, Each fleereth her neighbour and signeth and saith : "What see ye? Their signals, or levin afar? "What hear ye? God's thunder, or guns of our war ? "What mark ye? Their smoke, or the cloud- rack outblown ? "What chase ye? Their lights, or the Day- star low down?" So, times past all number deceived by false shows, Deceiving we cumber the road of our foes, For this is our virtue : to track and betray ; Preparing great battles a sea's width away. Now peace is at end and our peoples take heart, For the laws are clean gone that restrained our art; Up and down the near headlands and against the far wind We are loosed (0 be swift!) to the work of our kind ! THE DESTROYERS The strength of twice three thousand horse That seek the single goal; The line that holds the rending course, The hate that swings the whole: The stripped hulls, slinking through the gloom, At gaze and gone again The Brides of Death that wait the groom The Choosers of the Slain ! Offshore where sea and skyline blend In rain, the daylight dies ; The sullen j __shpuldering swells attend Night and our sacrifice. Adown the stricken capes no flare No mark on spit or bar, Girdled and desperate we dare The blindfold game of war. ii 12 THE FIVE NATIONS Nearer the up-flung beams that spell The council of our foes ; Clearer the barking guns that tell Their scattered flank to close. Sheer to the trap they crowd their way From ports for this unbarred. Quiet, and count our laden prey The convoy and her guard ! On shoal with scarce a foot below, Where rock and islet throng, Hidden and hushed we watch them throw Their anxious lights along. Not here, not here your danger lies (Stare hard, O hooded eyne !) Save where the dazed rock-pigeons rise The lit cliffs give no sign. Therefore to break the rest ye seek, The Narrow Seas to clear Hark to the syren's whimpering shriek- The driven death is here ! THE DESTROYERS 13 Look to your van a league away, What midnight terror stays The bulk that checks against the spray Her crackling tops ablaze ? Hit, and hard hit ! The blow went home, The muffled, knocking stroke The steam that overruns the foam The foam that thins to smoke The smoke that clokes the deep aboil The deep that chokes her throes Till, streaked with ash and sleeked with oil, The lukewarm whirlpools close ! A shadow down the sickened wave Long since her slayer fled : But hear their chattering quick-fires rave Astern, abeam, ahead ! Panic that shells the drifting spar Loud waste with none to check Mad fear that rakes a scornful star Or sweeps a consort's deck ! 14 THE FIVE NATIONS Now, while their silly smoke hangs thick, Now ere their wits they find, Lay in and lance them to the quick Our gallied whales are blind I Good luck to those that see the end, Good-bye to those that drown For each his chance as chance shall send And God for all ! Shut down ! The strength of twice three thousand horse That serve the one command; The hand that heaves the headlong force, The hate that backs the hand: The doom-bolt in the darkness freed, Tlie mine that splits the main; The white-hot wake, the 'wildering speed The Choosers of the Slain ! WHITE HORSES Where run your colts at pasture ? Where hide your mares to breed ? 'Mid bergs about the Ice-cap Or wove Sargasso weed; By chartless reef and channel, Or crafty coastwise bars, But most the ocean-meadows All purple to the stars ! Who holds the rein upon you f The latest gale let free. What meat is in your mangers ? The glut of all the sea. 'Twixt tide and tide's returning Great store of newly dead, The bones of those that faced us, And the hearts of those that fled. 1 6 THE FIVE NATIONS Afar, off-shore and single, Some stallion, rearing swift, Neighs hungry for new fodder, And calls us to the drift. Then down the cloven ridges A million hooves unshod Break forth the mad White Horses To seek their meat from God ! Girth-deep in hissing water Our furious vanguard strains Through mist of mighty tramplings Roll up the fore-blown manes A hundred leagues to leeward, Ere yet the deep is stirred, The groaning rollers carry The coming of the herd ! Whose hand may grip your nostrils Your forelock who may hold f E'en they that use the broads with us The riders bred and bold, WHITE HORSES 17 That spy upon our matings, That rope us where we run They know the strong White Horses From father unto son. We breathe about their cradles, We race their babes ashore, We snuff against their thresholds, We nuzzle at their door; By day with stamping squadrons, By night in whinnying droves, Creep up the wise White Horses, To call them from their loves. And come they for your calling f No wit of man may save. They hear the loosed White Horses Above their father's grave; And, kin of those we crippled, And, sons of those we slew, Spur down the wild white riders To school the herds anew. xS THE FIVE NATIONS What service have ye paid them, Ok jealous steeds and strong f Save we that throw their weaklings, Is none dare work them wrong; While thick around the homestead Our snow-backed leaders graze A guard behind their plunder, And a veil before their ways. With march and countermarchings- With weight of wheeling hosts Stray mob or bands embattled We ring the chosen coasts : And, careless of our clamour That bids the stranger fly, At peace within our pickets The wild white riders lie. Trust ye the curdled hollows Trust ye the neighing wind Trust ye the moaning groundswell Our herds are close behind ! WHITE HORSES rg To bray your foeman's armies To chill and snap his sword Trust ye the wild White Horses, The Horses of the Lord ! THE SECOND VOYAGE WE'VE sent our little Cupids all ashore They were frightened, they were tired, they were cold; Our sails of silk and purple go to store, And we've cut away our mast of beaten gold (Foul weather !) Oh 'tis hemp and singing pine for to stand against the brine, But Love he is the master as of old ! The sea has shorn our galleries away, The salt has soiled our gilding past remede; Our paint is flaked and blistered by the spray, Our sides are half a fathom furred in weed (Foul weather !) And the doves of Venus fled and the petrels came instead, But Love he was our master at our need ! 20 THE SECOND VOYAGE 21 'Was Youth would keep no vigil at the bow, 'Was Pleasure at the helm too drunk to steer We've shipped three able quartermasters now, Men call them Custom, Reverence, and Fear (Foul weather !) They are old and scarred and plain, but we'll run no risk again From any Port o' Paphos mutineer ! We seek no more the tempest for delight, We skirt no more the indraught and the shoal We ask no more of any day or night Than to come with least adventure to our goal (Foul weather !) What we find we needs must brook, but we do not go to look, Nor tempt the Lord our God that saved us whole ! Yet, caring so, not overly we care To brace and trim for every foolish blast, If the squall be pleased to sweep us unaware, He may bellow off to leeward like the last (Foul weather !) 22 THE FIVE NATIONS We will blame it on the deep (for the watch must have their sleep), And Love can come and wake us when 'tis past. Oh launch them down with music from the beach, Oh warp them out with garlands from the quays Most resolute a damsel unto each New prows that seek the old Hesperides ! (Foul weather!) Though we know the voyage is vain, yet we see our path again In the saffroned bridesails scenting all the seas! (Foul weather! ) THE DYKES WE have no heart for the fishing, we have no hand for the oar All that our fathers taught us of old pleases us now no more ; All that our own hearts bid us believe we doubt where we do not deny There is no proof in the bread we eat or rest in the toil we ply. Look you, our foreshore stretches far through sea-gate, dyke, and groin Made land all, that our fathers made, where the flats and the fairway join. They forced the sea a sea-league back. They died, and their work stood fast. We were born to peace in the lee of the dykes, but the time of our peace is past. 23 44 T HE FIVE NATIONS Far off, the full tide clambers and slips, mouth- ing and testing all, Nipping the flanks of the water-gates, baying along the wall; Turning the shingle, returning the shingle, changing the set of the sand . . . We are too far from the beach, men say, to know how the outworks stand. So we come down, uneasy, to look, uneasily pacing the beach. These are the dykes our fathers made: we have never known a breach. Time and again has the gale blown by and we were not afraid; Now we come only to look at the dykes at the dykes our fathers made. O'er the marsh where the homesteads cower apart, the harried sunlight flies, Shifts and considers, wanes and recovers, scat- ters and sickens and dies THE DYKES 25 An evil ember bedded in ash a spark blown west by the wind . . . We are surrendered to night and the sea the gale and the tide behind ! At the bridge of the lower saltings the cattle gather and blare, Roused by the feet of running men, dazed by the lantern glare. Unbar and let them away for their lives the levels drown as they stand, Where the flood-wash forces the sluices aback and the ditches deliver inland. Ninefold deep to the top of the dykes the gallop- ing breakers stride, And their overcarried spray is a sea a sea on the landward side. Coming, like stallions they paw with their hooves, going they snatch with their teeth, Till the bents and the furze and the sand are dragged out, and the old-time wattles beneath ! 26 THE FIVE NATIONS Bid men gather fuel for fire, the tar and the oil and the tow Flame we shall need, not smoke, in the dark if the riddled seabanks go. Bid the ringers watch in the tower (who knows what the dawn shall prove?) Each with his rope between his feet and the trembling bells above. Now we can only wait till the day, wait and apportion our shame ! These are the dykes our fathers left, but we would not look to the same. Time and again were we warned of the dykes, time and again we delayed: Now, it may fall, we have slain our sons as our fathers we have betrayed. Walking along the wreck of the dykes, watching the work of the seas, These were the dykes our fathers made to our great profit and ease; THE DYKES 27 But the peace is gone and the profit is gone, and the old sure day withdrawn . . . That our own houses show as strange when we come back in the dawn ! THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ THE God of Fair Beginnings Hath prospered here my hand The cargoes of my lading, And the keels of my command. For out of many ventures That sailed with hope as high, My own have made the better trade, And Admiral am I ! To me my King's much honour, To me my people's love To me the pride of Princes And power all pride above; To me the shouting cities, To me the mob's refrain: "Who knows not noble Valdez, Hath never heard of Spain. " 28 THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ 29 But I remember comrades Old playmates on new seas - Whenas we traded orpiment Among the savages A thousand leagues to south'ard And thirty years removed They knew not noble Valdez, But me they knew and loved. Then they that found good liquor, They drank it not alone, And they that found fair plunder, They told us every one, About our chosen islands Or secret shoals between, When, walty from far voyage, We gathered to careen. There burned our breaming-fagots All pale along the shore : There rose our worn pavilions A sail above an oar : 30 THE FIVE NATIONS As flashed each yearning anchor Through mellow seas afire, So swift our careless captains Rowed each to his desire ! Where lay our loosened harness ? Where turned our naked feet ? Whose tavern 'mid the palm-trees? What quenchings of what heat? Oh fountain in the desert ! Oh cistern in the waste ! Oh bread we ate in secret ! Oh cup we spilled in haste ! The youth new-taught of longing, The widow curbed and wan The goodwife proud at season, And the maid aware of man ; All souls unslaked, consuming, Defrauded in delays, Desire not more than quittance Than I those forfeit days ! THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ 31 I dreamed to wait my pleasure Unchanged my spring would bide : Wherefore, to wait my pleasure, I put my spring aside Till, first in face of Fortune, And last in mazed disdain, I made Diego Valdez High Admiral of Spain. Then walked no wind 'neath Heaven Nor surge that did not aid I dared extreme occasion, Nor ever one betrayed. They wrought a deeper treason (Led seas that served my needs !) They sold Diego Valdez To bondage of great deeds. The tempest flung me seaward, And pinned and bade me hold The course I might not alter And men esteemed me bold ! 32 THE FIVE NATIONS The calms embayed my quarry, The fog-wreath sealed his eyes ; The dawn -wind brought my topsails- And men esteemed me wise ! Yet 'spite my tyrant triumphs Bewildered, dispossessed My dream held I before me My vision of my rest; But, crowned by Fleet and People, And bound by King and Pope Stands here Diego Valdez To rob me of my hope ! No prayer of mine shall move him, No word of his set free The Lord of Sixty Pennants And the Steward of the Sea. His will can loose ten thousand To seek their loves again But not Diego Valdez, High Admiral of Spain. THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ 33 There walks no wind 'neath Heaven Nor wave that shall restore The old careening riot And the clamorous, crowded shore The fountain in the desert, The cistern in the waste, The bread we ate in secret, The cup we spilled in haste ! Now call I to my Captains For council fly the sign, Now leap their zealous galleys Twelve-oared across the brine. To me the straiter prison, To me the heavier chain To me Diego Valdez, High Admiral of Spain ! THE BROKEN MEN FOR things we never mention, For Art misunderstood For excellent intention That did not turn to good; From ancient tales' renewing, From clouds we would not clear- Beyond the Law's pursuing We fled, and settled here. We took no tearful leaving, We bade no long good-byes ; Men talked of crime and thieving, Men wrote of fraud and lies. To save our injured feelings 'Twas time and time to go Behind was dock and Dartmoor, Ahead lay Callao ! 34 THE BROKEN MEN 35 The widow and the orphan That pray for ten per cent., They clapped their trailers on us To spy the road we went. They watched the foreign sailings (They scan the shipping still), And that's your Christian people Returning good for ill ! God bless the thoughful islands Where never warrants come ! God bless the just Republics That give a man a home, That ask no foolish questions, But set him on his feet ; And save his wife and daughters From the workhouse and the street ! On church and square and market The noonday silence falls ; You'll hear the drowsy mutter Of the fountain in our halls. 36 THE FIVE NATIONS Asleep amid the yuccas The city takes her ease Till twilight brings the land-wind To our clicking jalousies. Day long the diamond weather, The high, unaltered blue The smell of goats and incense And the mule-bells tinkling through. Day long the warder ocean That keeps us from our kin, And once a month our levee When the English mail comes in. You'll find us up and waiting To treat you at the bar; You'll find us less exclusive Than the average English are. We'll meet you with our carriage, Too glad to show you round, But we do not lunch on steamers, For they are English ground. TtfE BROKEN MEN 37 We sail o' nights to England And join our smiling Boards; Our wives go in with Viscounts And our daughters dance with Lords. But behind our princely doings, And behind each coup we make, We feel there's Something Waiting, And we meet It when we wake. Ah God ! One sniff of England To greet our flesh and blood To hear the hansoms slurring Once more through London mud ! Our towns of wasted honour Our streets of lost delight ! How stands the old Lord Warden? Are Dover's cliffs still white ? THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN * Now the Four-way Lodge is opened, now the Hunting Winds are loose Now the Smokes of Spring go up to clear the brain; Now the Young Men's hearts are troubled for the whisper of the Trues, Now the Red Gods make their medicine again ! Who hath seen the beaver busied? Who hath watched the black-tail mating ? Who hath lain alone to hear the wild-goose cry? Who hath worked the chosen water where the ouananiche is waiting, Or the sea-trout's jumping-crazy for the fly ? He must go go go away from here ! On the other side the world he's overdue. 'Send your road is clear before you when the old Spring- fret comes o'er you And the Red Gods call for you ! Copjrijbt, 1687, bj Rudjlrd Kipling 38 THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN 39 So for one the wet sail arching through the rain- bow round the bow, And for one the creak of snow-shoes on the crust; And for one the lakeside lilies where the bull- moose waits the cow, And for one the mule-train coughing in the dust. Who hath smelt wood-smoke at twilight ? Who hath heard the birch-log burning ? Who is quick to read the noises of the night ? Let him follow with the others, for the Young Men's feet are turning To the camps of proved desire and known delight ! Let him go go, etc. I Do you know . the blackened timber do you know that racing stream With the raw, right-angled log-jam at the end ; And the bar of sun-warmed shingle where a man may bask and dream To the click of shod canoe-poles round the bend? 40 THE FIVE NATIONS It is there that we are going with our rods and reels and traces, To a silent,smoky Indian that we know To a couch of new-pulled hemlock with the star- light on our faces, For the Red Gods call us out and we must go ! They must go go, etc. II Do you know the shallow Baltic where the seas are steep and short, Where the bluff, lee-boarded fishing-luggers ride? Do you know the joy of threshing leagues to leeward of your port On a coast you've lost the chart of overside ? It is there that I am going, with an extra hand to bale her Just one able 'long-shore loafer that I know. He can take his chance of drowning, while I sail and sail and sail her, For the Red Gods call me out and I must go ! He must go go, etc. THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN 4! Ill Do you know the pile-built village where the sago-dealers trade Do you know the reek of fish and wet bamboo ? Do you know the steaming stillness of the orchid-scented glade When the blazoned, bird-winged butterflies flap through ? It is there that I am going with my camphor, net, and boxes, To a gentle, yellow pirate that I know To my little wailing lemurs, to my palms and fly ing- foxes, For the Red Gods call me out and I must go ! He must go go, etc. IV Do you know the world's white roof-tree do you know that windy rift Where the baffling mountain-eddies chop and change ? Do you know the long day's patience, belly- down on frozen drift, While the head of heads is feeding out of range ? 42 THE FIVE NATIONS It is there that I am going, where the boulders and the snow lie, With a trusty, nimble tracker that I know. I have sworn an oath, to keep it on the Horns of Ovis Poli, And the Red Gods call me out and I must go ! He must go go, etc. Now the Four-way Lodge is opened now the Smokes of Council rise Pleasant smokes, ere yet 'twixt trail and trail they choose Now the girths and ropes are tested: now they pack their last supplies : Now our Young Men go to dance before the Trues! Who shall meet them at those altars who shall light them to that shrine ? Velvet -footed, who shall guide them to their goal? Unto each the voice and vision: unto each his spoor and sign THE FEET OP THE YOUNG .MEN 43 Lonely mountain in the Northland, misty sweat- bath 'neath the Line And to each a man that knows his naked soul! White or yellow, black or copper, he is waiting, as a lover, Smoke of funnel, dust of hooves, or beat of train Where the high grass hides the horseman or the glaring flats discover Where the steamer hails the landing, or the surf-boat brings the rover Where the rails run out in sand-drift . . . Quick ! ah, heave the camp-kit over ! For the Red Gods make their medicine again ! And we go go go away from here ! On the other side the world we're overdue ! 'Send the road is clear before you when the old Spring-fret comes o'er you, And the Red Gods call for you ! THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR YEARLY, with tent and rifle, our careless white men go By the pass called Muttianee, to shoot in the vale below. Yearly by Muttianee he follows our white men in Matun, the old blind beggar, bandaged from brow to chin. Eyeless, noseless, and lipless toothless, broken of speech, Seeking a dole at the doorway he mumbles his tale to each; Over and over the story, ending as he began: "Make ye no truce with Adam-zad the Bear that walks like a man ! "There was a flint in my musket pricked and primed was the pan, When I went hunting Adam-zad the Bear that stands like a man. , bj Rudjud KlpUaf 44 THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR 45 I looked my last on the timber, I looked my last on the snow, When I went hunting Adam-zad fifty summers ago! " I knew his times and his seasons, as he knew mine, that fed By night in the ripened maizefield and robbed my house of bread ; I knew his strength and cunning, as he knew mine, that crept At dawn to the crowded goat-pens and plundered while I slept. " Up from his stony playground down from his well-digged lair Out on the naked ridges ran Adam-zad the Bear; Groaning, grunting, and roaring, heavy with stolen meals, Two long marches to northward, and I was at his heels ! " Two full marches to northward, at the fall of the second night, I came on mine enemy Adam-zad all panting from his flight. 46 THE FIVE NATIONS There was a charge in the musket pricked and primed was the pan My finger crooked on the trigger when he reared up like a man. " Horrible, hairy, human, with paws like hands in prayer, Making his supplication rose Adam-zad the Bear! I looked at the swaying shoulders, at the paunch's swag and swing, And my heart was touched with pity for the monstrous, pleading thing. " Touched with pity and wonder, I did not fire then . . . I have looked no more on women I have walked no more with men. Nearer he tottered and nearer, with paws like hands that pray From brow to jaw that steel-shod paw, it ripped my face away ! " Sudden, silent, and savage, searing as flame the blow Faceless I fell before his feet, fifty summers ago. THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR 47 I heard him grunt and chuckle I heard him pass to his den, He left me blind to the darkened years and the little mercy of men. " Now ye go down in the morning with guns of the newer style, That load (I have felt) in the middle and range (I have heard) a mile ? Luck to the white man's rifle, that shoots so fast and true, But pay, and I lift my bandage and show what the Bear can do !" (Flesh like slag in the furnace, knobbed and withered and grey Matun, the old blind beggar, he gives good worth for his pay.) "Rouse him at noon in the bushes, follow and press him hard Not for his ragings and roarings flinch ye from Adam-zad. " But (pay, and I put back the bandage) this is the time to fear, When he stands up like a tired man, tottering near and near; 48 THE FIVE NATIONS When he stands up as pleading, in wavering, man-brute guise, When he veils the hate and cunning of the little, swinish eyes; " When he shows as seeking quarter, with paws like hands in prayer, That is the time of peril the time of the Truce of the Bear!" Eyeless, noseless, and lipless, asking a dole at the door, Matun, the old blind beggar, he tells it o'er and o'er; Fumbling and feeling the rifles, warming his hands at the flame, Hearing our careless white men talk of the morrow's game; Over and over the story, ending as he began : " There is no truce with Adam-zad t the Bear that looks like a man ! ' ' THE OLD MEN This is our lot if we live so long and labour unto the end That we outlive the impatient years and the much too patient friend : And because we know we have breath in our mouth and think we have thought in our head, We shall assume that we are alive, whereas we are really dead. We shall not acknowledge that old stars fade or alien planets arise (That the sere bush buds or the desert blooms or the ancient well-head dries), Or any new compass wherewith new men adventure 'neath new skies. We shall lift up the ropes that constrained our youth to bind on our children's hands ; 49 S o THE FIVE NATIONS We shall call to the water below the bridges to return and replenish our lands ; We shall harness horses (Death's own pale horses) and scholarly plough the sands. We shall lie down in the eye of the sun for lack of a light on our way We shall rise up when the day is done and chirrup, " Behold, it is day ! " We shall abide till the battle is won ere we amble into the fray. We shall peck out and discuss and dissect, and evert and extrude to our mind, The flaccid tissues of long-dead issues offensive to God and mankind (Precisely like vultures over an ox that the Army has left behind). We shall make walk preposterous ghosts of the glories we once created (Immodestly smearing from muddled palettes amazing pigments mismated) And our friends will weep when we ask them with boasts if our natural force be abated. THE OLD MEN 51 The Lamp of our Youth will be utterly out: but we shall subsist on the smell of it, And whatever we do, we shall fold our hands and suck our gums and think well of it. Yes, we shall be perfectly pleased with our work, and that is the perfectest Hell of it ! This is our lot if we live so long and listen to those who love us That we are shunned by the people about and shamed by the Powers above us. Wherefore be free of your harness betimes; but being free be assured, That he who hath not endured to the death, from his birth he hath never endured ! THE EXPLORER "THERE'S no sense in going further it's the edge of cultivation, " So they said, and I believed it broke my land and sowed my crop Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop. Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang inter- minable changes On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated so : "Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges "Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you . Go ! " 52 THE EXPLORER $3 So 1 went, worn out of patience; 'never told my nearest neighbours Stole away with pack and ponies left 'em drinking in the town; And the faith that moveth mountains didn't seem to help my labours As I faced the sheer main-ranges, whipping up and leading down. March by march I puzzled through 'em, turning flanks and dodging shoulders, Hurried on in hope of water, headed back for lack of grass; Till I camped above the tree-line drifted snow and naked boulders Felt free air astir to windward knew I'd stumbled on the Pass. 'Thought to name it for the finder: but that night the Norther found me Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies: so I called the camp Despair 54 (It's the Railway Gap to-day, though). Then my Whisper waked to hound me : "Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder. Go you there ! ' ' Then I knew, the while I doubted knew His Hand was certain o'er me. Still it might be self-delusion scores of better men had died I could reach the township living, but . . ,; He knows what terrors tore me . . . But I didn't ... but I didn't. I went down the other side. Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes, And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brim- ming stream ran by ; But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the water drained to shallows And I dropped again on desert, blasted earth, and blasting sky. . . . THE EXPLORER 55 I remember lighting fires ; I remember sitting by them; I remember seeing faces, hearing voices through the smoke; I remember they were fancy for I threw a stone to try "em. "Something lost behind the Ranges," was the only word they spoke. I remember going crazy. I remember that I knew it When I heard myself hallooing to the funny folk I saw. Very full of dreams that desert: but my two legs took me through it ... And I used to watch 'em moving with the toes all black and raw. But at last the country altered White man's country past disputing Rolling grass and open timber, with a hint of hills behind 56 THE FIVE NATIONS There I found me food and water, and I lay a week recruiting, Got my strength and lost my nightmares. Then I entered on my find. Thence I ran my first rough survey chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em Week by week I pried and sampled week by week my findings grew. Saul he went to look for donkeys, and by God he found a kingdom ! But by God, who sent His Whisper, I had struck the worth of two ! Up along the hostile mountains, where the hair- poised snow-slide shivers Down and through the big fat marshes that the virgin ore-bed stains, Till I heard the mile-wide mutterings of un- imagined rivers And beyond the nameless timber saw illimitable plains ! THE EXPLORER $7 'Plotted sites of future cities, traced the easy grades between 'em; Watched unharnessed rapids wasting fifty thousand head an hour ; Counted leagues of water-frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em Saw the plant to feed a people up and waiting for the power ! Well I know who'll take the credit all the clever chaps that followed Came, a dozen men together never knew my desert fears; Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, used the water holes I'd hollowed: They'll go back and do the talking. They'll be called the Pioneers ! They will find my sites of townships not the cities that I set there. They will rediscover rivers not my rivers heard at night. 58 THE FIVE NATIONS By my own old marks and bearings they will show me how to get there, By the lonely cairns I builded they will guide my feet aright. Have I named one single river ? Have I claimed one single acre ? Have I kept one single nugget (barring sam- ples)? No, not I. Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Maker. But you wouldn't understand it. You go up and occupy. Ores you'll find there; wood and cattle; water- transit sure and steady (That should keep the railway rates down), coal and iron at your doors. God took care to hide that country till He judged His people ready, Then He chose me for His Whisper, and I've found it, and it's yours ! THE EXPLORER 59 Yes, your "Never-never country" yes, your "edge of cultivation" And "no sense in going further" till I crossed the range to see. God forgive me! No, 7 didn't. It's God's present to our nation. Anybody might have found it but His Whisper came to Me ! THE WAGE-SLAVES OH glorious are the guarded heights Where guardian souls abide Self-exiled from our gross delights Above, beyond, outside: An ampler arc their spirit swings Commands a juster view We have their word for all these things, Nor doubt their words are true. Yet we the bondslaves of our day, Whom dirt and danger press Co-heirs of insolence, delay, And leagued unfaithfulness Such is our need must seek indeed And, having found, engage The men who merely do the work For which they draw the wage. From forge and farm and mine and bench, Deck, altar, outpost lone 60 THE WAGE-SLAVES . 61 Mill, school, battalion, counter, trench, Rail, senate, sheepfold, throne Creation's cry goes up on high From age to cheated age: ' ' Send us the men who do the work For which they draw the wage. " Words cannot help nor wit achieve, Nor e'en the all-gifted fool, Too weak to enter, bide, or leave The lists he cannot rule. Beneath the sun we count on none Our evil to assuage, Except the men that do the work For which they draw the wage. When through the Gates of Stress and Strain Comes forth the vast Event The simple, sheer, sufficing, sane Result of labour spent They that have wrought the end unthought Be neither saint nor sage, But men who merely did the work For which they drew the wage THE FIVE NATIONS Wherefore to these the Fates shall bend (And all old idle things ) Wherefore on these shall Power attend Beyond the grasp of kings : Each in his place, by right, not grace, Shall rule his heritage The men who simply do the work For which they draw the wage. Not such as scorn the loitering street, Or waste to earn its praise, Their noontide's unreturning heat About their morning ways : But such as dower each mortgaged hour Alike with clean courage Even the men who do the work For which they draw the wage Men like to Gods that do the work For which they draw the wage Begin continue close the work For which they draw the wage ! THE BURIAL C J. RHODES, buried in the Matoppos, April 10, 1902 WHEN that great Kings return to clay, Or Emperors in their pride, Grief of a day shall fill a day, Because its creature died. But we we reckon not with those Whom the mere Fates ordain, This Power that wrought on us and goes Back to the Power again. Dreamer devout, by vision led Beyond our guess or reach, The travail of his spirit bred Cities in place of speech. 63 64 THE FIVE NATIONS So huge the all-mastering thought that drove So brief the term allowed Nations, not words, he linked to prove His faith before the crowd. It is his will that he look forth Across the world he won The granite of the ancient North Great spaces washed with sun. There shall he patient make his seat (As when the Death he dared) , And there await a people's feet In the paths that he prepared. There, till the vision he forsaw Splendid and whole arise, And unimagined Empires draw To council 'neath his skies, The immense and brooding Spirit still Shall quicken and control. Living he was the land, and dead, His soul shall be her soul ! GENERAL JOUBERT (DIED MARCH 27th, 1900) WITH those that bred, with those that loosed the strife, He had no part whose hands were clear of gain ; But subtle, strong, and stubborn, gave his life To a lost cause, and knew the gift was vain. Later shall rise a people, sane and great, Forged in strong fires, by equal war made one ; Telling old battles over without hate Not least his name shall pass from sire to son. He may not meet the onsweep of our van In the doomed city when we close the score. Yet o'er his grave his grave that holds a man Our deep-tongued guns shall answer his once more ! Copjrlgbt, 1 W0,.by Rudjrd Kipling 65 THE PALACE WHEN I was a King and a Mason a Master proven and skilled I cleared me ground for a palace such as a King should build. I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently, under the silt, I came on the wreck of a palace such as a King had built. There was no worth in the fashion there was no wit in the plan Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone : "After me.cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known. " 60 THE PALACE 67 Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well- planned ground-works grew, I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew. Lime I milled of the marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread; Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead. Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart, I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder's heart. As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understand The form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned. When I was a King and a Mason in the open noon of my pride, They sent me a Word from the Darkness They whispered and called me aside. 68 THE FIVE NATIONS They said "The end is forbidden." They said "Thy use is fulfilled, "And thy palace shall stand as that other's the spoil of a King who shall build. " I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my shears. All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years. Only I cut on the timber, only I carved on the stone : After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known ! SUSSEX GOD gave all men all earth to love, But since our hearts are small, Ordained for each one spot should prove Beloved over all; That as He watched Creation's birth, So we, in godlike mood, May of our love create our earth And see that it is good. So one shall Baltic pines content, As one some Surrey glade, Or one the palm-grove's droned lament Before Levuka's trade. Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground in a fair ground Yea, Sussex by the sea ! 69 70 THE FIVE NATIONS No tender-hearted garden crowns, No bosomed woods adorn Our blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed Downs, But gnarled and writhen thorn Bare slopes where chasing shadows skim, And through the gaps revealed Belt upon belt, the wooded, dim Blue goodness of the Weald. Clean of officious fence or hedge, Half-wild and wholly tame, The wise turf cloaks the white cliff edge As when the Romans came. What sign of those that fought and died At shift of sword and sword? The barrow and the camp abide, The sunlight and the sward. Here leaps ashore the full Sou'west All heavy- winged with brine, Here lies above the folded crest The Channel's leaden line; SUSSEX 71 And here the sea-fogs lap and cling, And here, each warning each, The sheep-bells and the ship-bells ring Along the hidden beach. We have no waters to delight Our broad and brookless vales Only the dewpond on the height Unfed, that never fails, Whereby no tattered herbage tells Which way the season flies Only our close-bit thyme that smells Like dawn in Paradise. Here through the strong unhampered days The tinkling silence thrills; Or little, lost, Down churches praise The Lord who made the hills : But here the Old Gods guard their round, And, in her secret heart, The heathen kingdom Wilfrid found Dreams, as she dwells, apart. 72 THE FIVE NATIONS - Though all the rest were all my share, With equal soul I'd see Her nine-and-thirty sisters fair, Yet none more fair than she. Choose ye your need from Thames to Tweed, And I will choose instead Such lands as lie 'twixt Rake and Rye, Black Down and Beachy Head. I will go out against the sun Where the rolled scarp retires, And the Long Man of Wilmington Looks naked toward the shires ; And east till doubling Rother crawls To find the fickle tide, By dry and sea-forgotten walls, Our ports of stranded pride. I will go north about the shaws And the deep ghylls that breed Huge oaks and old, the which we hold No more than " Sussex weed "; SUSSEX 73 Or south where windy Piddinghoe's Begilded dolphin veers, And black beside wide-banked Ouse Lie down our Sussex steers. So to the land our hearts we give Till the sure magic strike, And Memory, Use, and Love make live Us and our fields alike That deeper than our speech and thought, Beyond our reason's sway, Clay of the pit whence we were wrought Yearns to its fellow-clay. God gives all men all earth to love, But since man's heart is small, Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all. Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground in a fair ground Yea, Sussex by the sea I SONG OF THE WISE CHILDREN WHEN the darkened Fifties dip to the North, And frost and the fog divide the air, And the day is dead at his breaking-forth, Sirs, it is bitter beneath the Bear ! Far to Southward they wheel and glance, The million molten spears of morn The spears of our deliverance That shine on the house where we were born. Flying-fish about our bows, Flying sea-fires in our wake : This is the road to our Father's House, Whither we go for our soul's sake ! We have forfeited our birthright, We have forsaken all things meet ; We have forgotten the look of light, We have forgotten the scent of heat. 74 SONG OF THE WISE CHILDREN 75 They that walk with shaded brows, Year by year in a shining land, They be men of our Father's House, They shall receive us and understand. We shall go back by boltless doors, To the life unaltered our childhood knew To the naked feet on the cool, dark floors, And the high-ceiled rooms that the Trade blows through : To the trumpet -flowers and the moon beyond, And the tree-toad's chorus drowning all And the lisp of the split banana-frond That talked us to sleep when we were small. The wayside magic, the threshold spells, Shall soon undo what the North has done Because of the sights and the sounds and the smells That ran with our youth in the eye of the sun ! And Earth accepting shall ask no vows, Nor the Sea our love nor our lover the Sky. When we return to our Father's House Only the English shall wonder why ! BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA "And there is a Japanese idol at Kamakura " OH ye who tread the Narrow Way By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day, Be gentle when the " heathen " pray To Buddha at Kamakura ! To him the Way, the Law, Apart, Whom Maya held beneath her heart, Ananda's Lord the Bodhisat, The Buddha of Kamakura. For though he neither burns nor sees, Nor hears ye thank your Deities, Ye have not sinned with such as these, His children at Kamakura; Yet spare us still the Western joke When joss-sticks turn to scented smoke The little sins of little folk That worship at Kamakura 76 BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA 77 The grey-robed, gay-sashed butterflies That flit beneath the Master's eyes He is beyond the Mysteries But loves them at Kamakura. And whoso will, from Pride released, Contemning neither creed nor priest, May feel the soul of all the East About him at Kamakura. Yea, every tale Ananda heard, Of birth as fish or beast or bird, While yet in lives the Master stirred, The warm wind brings Kamakura. Till drowsy eyelids seem to see A-flower 'neath her golden htee The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly From Burmah to Kamakura; And down the loaded air there comes The thunder of Thibetan drums, And droned "Om mane padme onis" A world's width from Kamakura. 78 THE FIVE NATIONS Yet Brahmans rule Benares still, Buddh-Gaya's ruins pit the hill, And beef-fed zealots threaten ill To Buddha and Kamakura. A tourist-show, a legend told, A rusting bulk of bronze and gold, So much, and scarce so much, ye hold The meaning of Kamakura ? But when the morning prayer is prayed, Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade, Is God in human image made No nearer than Kamakura? THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN TAKE up the White Man's burden Send forth the best ye breed Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child. Take up the White Man's burden In patience to abide, To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride ; By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain, To seek another's profit, And work another's gain. 1899, bj Rudjwd Kipling 79 8o THE FIVE NATIONS Take up the White Man's burden- The savage wars of peace Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch Sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hope to nought. Take up the White Man's burden No tawdry rule of kings, But toil of serf and sweeper The tale of common things. The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread, Go make them with your living, And mark them with our dead. Take up the White Man's burden And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 81 The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly !) toward the light : "Why brought ye us from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?" Take up the White Man's burden Ye dare not stoop to less Nor call too loud on Freedom To cloak your weariness; By all ye cry or whisper, By all ye leave or do, The silent, sullen peoples Shall weigh your Gods and you. Take up the White Man's burden Have done with childish days The lightly proffered laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise. Comes now, to search you* manhood Through all the thankless years, Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers ! PHARAOH AND THE SERGEANT "... Consider that the meritorious services of the Sergeant Instructors attached to the Egyptian Army have been inadequately acknowledged. . . . To the excellence of their work is mainly due the great improvement that has taken place in the soldiers of H. H. the Khedive." Extract from letter. SAID England unto Pharaoh, "I must make a man of you, That will stand upon his feet and play the game ; That will Maxim his oppressor as a Christian ought to do," And she sent old Pharaoh Sergeant Whatis- name. It was not a Duke nor Earl, nor yet a Vwcount It was not a big brass General that came ; But a man in khaki kit who could handle men a bit, With his bedding labelled Sergeant Whatisname. Copyright, 1897, hy Rudvar-I Kipling 82 PHARAOH AND THE SERGEANT 83 Said England unto Pharaoh, "Though at present singing small, You shall hum a proper tune before it -ends," And she introduced old Pharaoh to the Sergeant once for all, And left 'em in the desert making friends. It was not a Crystal Palace nor Cathedral ; It was not a public-house of common fame; But a piece of red-hot sand, with a palm on either hand, And a little hut for Sergeant Whatis- name. Said England unto Pharaoh, "You've had miracles before, When Aaron struck your rivers into blood; But if you watch the Sergeant he can show you something more, He 's a charm for making riflemen from mud. " It was neither Hindustani, French, nor Coptics ; It was odds and ends and leavings of the same, 84 THE FIVE NATIONS Translated by a stick (which is really half the trick), And Pharaoh harked to Sergeant What- isname. (There were years that no one talked of; there were times of horrid doubt There was faith and hope and whacking and despair While the Sergeant gave the Cautions and he combed old Pharaoh out, And England didn't seem to know nor care. That is England's awful way o' doing business She would serve her God or Gordon just the same For she thinks her Empire still is the Strand and Holborn Hill, And she didn't think of Sergeant Whatisname.) Said England to the Sergeant, "You can let my people go !" (England used 'em cheap and nasty from the start), And they entered 'em in battle on a most astonished foe But the Sergeant he had hardened Pharaoh's heart. That was broke, along of all the plagues of Egypt, Three thousand years before the Ser- geant came And he mended it again in a little more than ten, So Pharaoh fought like Sergeant What- isname ! It was wicked bad campaigning (cheap and nasty from the first) , There was heat and dust and coolie-work and sun, There were vipers, flies, and sandstorms, there was cholera and thirst, But Pharaoh done the best he ever done. Down the desert, down the railway, down the river, Like Israelites from bondage so he came, 86 THE FIVE NATIONS ' 'Tween the clouds o' dust and fire to the land of his desire, And his Moses, it was Sergeant Whatis- name ! We are eating dirt in handfuls for to save our daily bread, Which we have to buy from those that hate us most, And we must not raise the money where the Sergeant raised the dead, And it's wrong and bad and dangerous to boast. But he did it on the cheap and on the quiet, And he's not allowed to forward any claim Though he drilled a black man white, though he make a mummy fight, He will still continue Sergeant What- isname Private, Corporal, Colour-Sergeant, and Instructor But the everlasting miracle's the same ! OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS (CANADIAN PREFERENTIAL TARIFF, 1897) A NATION spoke to a Nation, A Queen sent word to a Throne : "Daughter am I in my mother's house, But mistress in my own. The gates are mine to open, As the gates are mine to close, And I set my house in order," Said our Lady of the Snows. " Neither with laughter nor weeping, Fear or the child's amaze Soberly under the White Man's law My white men go their ways. Not for the Gentiles' clamour Insult or threat of blows Bow we the knee to Baal," Said our Lady of the Snows. 87 88 THE FIVE NATIONS " My speech is clean and single, I talk of common things Words of the wharf and the market-place And the ware the merchant brings : Favour to those I favour, But a stumbling-block to my foes. Many there be that hate us," Said our Lady of the Snows. " I called my chiefs to council In the din of a troubled year ; For the sake of a sign ye would not see, And a word ye would not hear. This is our message and answer; This is the path we chose : For we be also a people," Said our Lady of the Snows. "Carry the word to my sisters To the Queens of the East and the South. I have proven faith in the Heritage By more than the word of the mouth. They that are wise may follow Ere the world's war-trumpet blows: But I I am first in the battle," Said our Lady of the Snows. A Nation spoke to a Nation, A Throne sent word to a Throne: "Daughter am I in my mother's house, But mistress in my own ! The gates are mine to open, As the gates are mine to close, And I abide by my mother's house" Said our Lady of the Snows. "ET DONA FERENTES" IN extended observation of the ways and works of man, From the Four -mile Radius roughly to the plains of Hindustan : I have drunk with mixed assemblies, seen the racial ruction rise, And the men of half creation damning half creation's eyes. I have watched them in their tantrums, all that pentecostal crew, French, Italian, Arab, Spaniard, Dutch and Greek, and Russ and Jew, Celt and savage, buff and ochre, cream and yellow, mauve and white, But it never really mattered till the English grew polite ; eopjilfht, ISM, bj Kudjud Klplinf 9 "ET DONA FERENTES" 9! Till the men with polished toppers, till the men in long frock-coats, Till the men that do not duel, till the men who fight with votes, Till the breed that take their pleasures as Saint Laurence took his grid, Began to "beg your pardon" and the knowing croupier hid. Then the bandsmen with their fiddles, and the girls that bring the beer, Felt the psychologic moment, left the lit casino clear ; But the uninstructed alien, from the Teuton to the Gaul, Was entrapped, once more, my country, by that suave, deceptive drawl. As it was in ancient Suez or 'neath wilder, milder skies, I "observe with apprehension" when the racial ructions rise ; 92 THE FIVE NATIONS And with keener apprehension, if I read the times aright, Hear the old casino order: "Watch your man, but be polite. "Keep your temper. Never answer (that was why they spat and swore). Don't hit first, but move together (there's no hurry) to the door. Back to back, and facing outward while the linguist tells 'em how 'Nous sommes allong a noire batteau, nous ne voulong pas un row.'" So the hard, pent rage ate inward, till some idiot went too far . "Let 'em have it!" and they had it, and the same was serious war. Fist, umbrella, cane, decanter, lamp and beer- mug, chair and boot Till behind the fleeing legions rose the long, hoarse yell for loot. "ET DONA FERENTES" 93 Then the oil-cloth with its numbers, as a banner fluttered free; Then the grand piano cantered, on three castors, down the quay ; White, and breathing through their nostrils, silent, systematic, swift They removed, effaced, abolished all that man could heave or lift. Oh, my country, bless the training that from cot to castle runs The pitfall of the stranger but the bulwark of thy sons Measured speech and ordered action, sluggish soul and unperturbed, Till we wake our Island-Devil nowise cool for being curbed ! When the heir of all the ages " has the honour to remain," When he will not hear an insult, though men make it ne'er so plain, 94 THE FIVE NATIONS When his lips are schooled to meekness, when his back is bowed to blows Well the keen aas-vogels know it well the waiting jackal knows. Build on the flanks of Etna where the sullen smoke-puffs float Or bathe in tropic waters where the lean fin dogs the boat Cock the gun that is not loaded, cook the frozen dynamite But oh, beware my country, when my country grows polite ! KITCHENER'S SCHOOL Being a translation of tlie song that was made by a Mohammedan schoolmaster of Bengal Infantry (some time on service at Suakim) when he heard that the Sirdar was taking money from the English to build a Afadrissa for Hubshees or a college for the Sudanese, 1898. OH Hubshee, carry your shoes in your hand and bow your head on your breast ! This is the message of Kitchener who did not break you in jest. It was permitted to him to fulfil the long- appointed years, Reaching the end ordained of old over your dead Emirs. He stamped only before your walls, and the Tomb ye knew was dust : He gathered up under his armpits all the swords of your trust: Copyright, 1898, by Rudjud Kipli.g 95 96 THE FIVE NATIONS He set a guard on your granaries, securing the weak from the strong: He said: "Go work the waterwheels that were abolished so long. " He said: "Go safely, being abased. I have accomplished my vow. " That was the mercy of Kitchener. Cometh his madness now ! He does not desire as ye desire, nor devise as ye devise : He is preparing a second host an army to make you wise. Not at the mouth of his clean-lipped guns shall ye learn his name again, But letter by letter, from Kaf to Kaf, at the mouth of his chosen men. He has gone back to his own city, not seeking presents or bribes, But openly asking the English for money to buy you Hakims and scribes. KITCHENER'S SCHOOL 97 Knowing that ye are forfeit by battle and have no right to live, He begs for money to bring you learning and all the English give. It is their treasure it is their pleasure thus are their hearts inclined : For Allah created the English mad the maddest of all mankind! They do not consider the Meaning of Things; they consult not creed nor clan. Behold, they clap the slave on the back, and behold, he ariseth a man ! They terribly carpet the earth with dead, and before their cannon cool, They walk unarmed by twos and threes to call the living to school. How is this reason (which is their reason) to judge a scholar's worth, By casting a ball at three straight sticks and defending the same with a fourth ? 98 THE FIVE NATIONS But this they do (which is doubtless a spell) and other matters more strange, Until, by the operation of years, the hearts of their scholars change: Till these make come and go great boats or engines upon the rail (But always the English watch near by to prop them when they fail) ; Till these make laws of their own choice and Judges of their own blood; And all the mad English obey the Judges and say that the Law is good. Certainly they were mad from of old: but I think one new thing, That the magic whereby they work their magic wherefrom their fortunes spring May be that they show all peoples their magic and ask no price in return. Wherefore, since ye are bond to that magic, O Hubshee, make haste and learn ! KITCHENER'S SCHOOL 99 Certainly also is Kitchener mad. But one sure thing I know If he who broke you be minded to teach you, to his Madrissa go ! Go, and carry your shoes in your hand and bow your head on your breast, For he who did not slay you in sport, he will not teach you in jest. THE YOUNG QUEEN THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, INAUGURATED NEW YEAR'S DAY 1901) HER hand was still on her sword-hilt, the spur was still on her heel, She had not cast her harness of grey war-dinted steel ; High on her red-splashed charger, beautiful, bold, and browned, Bright-eyed out of the battle, the Young Queen rode to be crowned. She came to the Old Queen's presence, in the Hall of Our Thousand Years In the Hall of the Five Free Nations that are peers among their peers: Royal she gave the greeting, loyal she bowed the head, Crying "Crown me, my Mother!" And the Old Queen stood and said: Ocj>jrl*ht, 1900, by Ru furthest friends may lease, " One by one from Ancient Accad to the Islands of the Seas. "And their covenants they make "For the naked iron's sake, " But I I trap them armoured into peace. "The flocks that Egypt pledged me to Assyria I drave, "And Pharaoh hath the increase of the herdi that Sargon gave. "Not for Ashdod overthrown " Will the Kings destroy their own, "Or their peoples wake the strife they feign to brave. THE PEACE OF DIVES 147 "Is not Calno like Carchemish? For the steeds of their desire "They have sold me seven harvests that I sell to Crowning Tyre; "And the Tyrian sweeps the plains "With a thousand hired wains, "And the Cities keep the peace and share the hire. "Hast thou seen the pride of Moab? For the swords about his path, " His bond is to Philistia, in half of all he hath; " And he dare not draw the sword "Till Gaza give the word, "And he show release from Askalon and Gath. "'Wilt thou call again thy peoples, wilt thou craze anew thy Kings? "Lo! my lightnings pass before thee, and their whistling servant brings, " Ere the drowsy street hath stirred "Every masked and midnight word, "And the nations break their fast upon these things. 148 THE FIVE NATIONS "So I make a jest of Wonder, and a mock of Time and Space, "The roofless Seas an hostel, and the Earth a market-place, "Where the anxious traders know "Each is surety for his foe, "And none may thrive without his fellows' grace. "Now this is all my subtlety and this is all my wit, "God give thee good enlightenment, My Master in the Pit. "But behold all Earth is laid "In the peace which I have made, " And behold I wait on thee to trouble it ! " SOUTH AFRICA LIVED a woman wonderful, (May the I ord amend her !) Neither simple, kind, nor true, But her Pagan beauty drew Christian gentlemen a few Hotly to attend her. Christian gentlemen a few From Berwick unto Dover; For she was South Africa, And she was South Africa, She was our South Africa, Africa all over! Half her land was dead with drouth, Half was red with battle; She was fenced with fire and sword, 149 150 THE FIVE NATIONS Plague on pestilence outpoured, Locusts on the greening sward And murrain on the cattle ! True, ah true, and overtrue; That is why we love her! For she is South Africa, And she is South Africa, She is our South Africa, Africa all over! Bitter hard her lovers toiled, Scandalous their payment, Food forgot on trains derailed; Cattle-dung where fuel failed; Water where the mules had staled; And sackcloth for their raiment ! So she filled their mouths with dust And their bones with fever; Greeted them with cruel lies; Treated them despiteful-wise; Meted them calamities Till they vowed to leave her. SOUTH AFRICA 151 They took ship and they took sail, Raging, from her borders, In a little, none the less, They forgat their sore duresse, They forgave her waywardness And returned for orders ! They esteemed her favour more Than a Throne's foundation. For the glory of her face Bade farewell to breed and race Yea, and made their burial-place Altar of a Nation ! Wherefore, being bought by blood And by blood restored To the arms that nearly lost, She, because of all she cost, Stands, a very woman, most Perfect and adored ! On your feet, and let them know This is why we love htr I 152 THE FIVE NATIONS For she is South Africa, She is our South Africa, Is our own South Africa, Africa all over I THE SETTLER HERE, where my fresh-turned furrows run, And the deep soil glistens red, I will repair the wrong that was done To the living and the dead. Here, where the senseless bullet fell, And the barren shrapnel burst, I will plant a tree, I will dig a well, Against the heat and the thirst. Here, in a large and a sunlit land, Where no wrong bites to the bone, I will lay my hand in my neighbour's hand, And together we will atone For the set folly and the red breach And the black waste of it all, Giving and taking counsel each Over the cattle-kraal. Copjdjht, 1903, by Rudyud Kipling 153 154 THE FIVE NATIONS Here will we join against our foes The hailstroke and the storm, And the red and rustling cloud that blows The locust's mile-deep swarm; Frost and murrain and floods let loose Shall launch us side by side In the holy wars that have no truce 'Twixt seed and harvest tide. Earth, where we rode to slay or be slain, Our love shall redeem unto life ; We will gather and lead to her lips again The waters of ancient strife, From the far and fiercely guarded streams And the pools where we lay in wait, Till the corn cover our evil dreams And the young corn our hate. And when we bring old fights to mind, We will not remember the sin If there be blood on his head of my kind, Or blood on my head of his kin THE SETTLER 155 For the ungrazed upland, the untilled lea Cry, and the fields forlorn: "The dead must bury their dead, but y Ye serve an host unborn." Bless then, our God, the new-yoked plough And the good beasts that draw, And the bread we eat in the sweat of our brow According to Thy Law. After us cometh a multitude Prosper the work of our hands, That we may feed with our land's food The folk of all our lands ! Here, in the waves and the troughs of the plains, Where the healing stillness lies, And the vast, benignant sky restrains And the long days make wise Bless to our use the rain and the sun And the blind seed in its bed, That we may repair the wrong that was done To the living and the dead ! SERVICE SONGS " Tommy'' you was when it began, But now that it is o'er You shall be called The Service Man 'Enceforward, evermore. Batt'ry, brigade, -flank, centre, van, Defaulter, Army corps From first to last The Service Man 'Enceforward, evermore. From 'Alifax to 'Industan, From York to Singapore 'Orse, foot, an' guns, The Service Man 'Enceforward, evermore ! CHANT PAGAN ENGLISH IRREGULAR: '99-02 ME that 'ave been what I've been, Me that 'ave gone where I've gone, Me that 'ave seen what I've seen 'Ow can I ever take on With awful old England again, An' 'ouses both sides of the street, And 'edges two sides of the lane, And the parson an' "gentry" between, An' touchin' my 'at when we meet Me that 'ave been what I've been? Me that 'ave watched 'arf a world 'Eave up all shiny with dew, Kopje on kop to the sun, An' as soon as the mist let 'em through Our 'elios winkin' like fun Three sides of a ninety-mile square, 160 THE FIVE NATIONS Over valleys as big as a shire Are ye there ? Are ye there ? Are ye there ? An' then the blind drum of our fire . . . An' I'm rollin' 'is lawns for the Squire, Me! Me that 'ave rode through the dark Forty mile often on end, Along the Ma'ollisberg Range, With only the stars for my mark An' only the night for my friend, An' things runnin' off as you pass, An' things jumpin' up in the grass, An' the silence, the shine an' the size Of the 'igh, inexpressible skies. . . . I am takin' some letters almost As much as a mile, to the post, An' "mind you come back with the change !" Me! Me that saw Barberton took When we dropped through the clouds on their 'ead, An' they 'ove the guns over an' fled CHANT PAGAN 161 Me that was through Di'mond '111, An' Pieters an' Springs an' Belfast From Dundee to Vereeniging all! Me that stuck out to the last (An' five bloomin' bars on my chest) I am doin' my Sunday-school best, By the 'elp of the Squire an' 'is wife (Not to mention the 'ousemaid an' cook), To come in an' 'ands up an' be still, An' honestly work for my bread, My livin' in that state of life To which it shall please God to call Me! Me that 'ave followed my trade In the place where the lightnin's are made, 'Twixt the Rains and the Sun and the Moon; Me that lay down an' got up Three years an' the sky for my roof That 'ave ridden my 'unger an' thirst Six thousand raw mile on the 'oof, With the Vaal and the Orange for cup, An' the Brandwater Basin for dish, Oh ! it's 'ard to be'ave as they wish, 1 62 THE FIVE NATIONS (Too 'ard, an* a little too soon), I'll 'ave to think over it first Me! I will arise an' get 'ence; I will trek South and make sure If it's only my fancy or not That the sunshine of England is pale, And the breezes of England are stale, An' there's somethin' gone small with the lot; For I know of a sun an' a wind, An' some plains and a mountain be'ind, An' some graves by a barb-wire fence ; An' a Dutchman I've fought 'oo might give Me a job were I ever inclined, To look in an' offsaddle an' live Where there's neither a road nor a tree But only my Maker an' me, An' I think it will kill me or cure, So I think I will go there an' see. M. I. (MOUNTED INFANTRY OP THE LINE) I WISH my mother could see me now, with a fence-post under my arm, And a knife and a spoon in my putties that I found on a Boer farm, Atop of a sore-backed Argentine, with a thirst that you couldn't buy. I used to be in the Yorkshires once (Sussex, Lincolns, and Rifles once), Hampshires, Glosters, and Scottish once ! (ad lib.) But now I am M. I. That is what we are known as that is the name you must call If you want officers' servants, pickets an* 'orse-guards an' all Copyright, 1901, by Eudjtrd Kipling 1 64 THE FIVE NATIONS Details for buryin'-parties, company-cooks or supply Turn out the chronic Ikonas ! Roll up the *M. I.! My 'ands are spotty with veldt-sores, my shirt is a button an' frill, An' the things I've used my bay'nit for would make a tinker ill ! An' I don't know whose dam' column I'm in, nor where we're trekkin' nor why. I've trekked from the Vaal to the Orange once From the Vaal to the greasy Pongolo once (Or else it was called the Zambesi once) For now I am M. I. That is what we are known as we are the push you require For outposts all night under freezin', an' rear-guard all day under fire. Anything 'ot or unwholesome? Anything dusty or dry? Borrow a bunch of Ikonas ! Trot out the M. I.! * Number according to taste and service of audience. M. I. 165 Our Sergeant-Major's a subaltern, owe Cap- tain's a Fusilier Our Adjutant's "late of Somebody's 'Orse," an' a Melbourne auctioneer; But you couldn't spot us at 'arf a mile from the crackest caval-ry. They used to talk about Lancers once, Hussars, Dragoons, an' Lancers once, 'Elmets, pistols, an' carbines once, But now we are M. I. That is what we are known as we are the orphans they blame For beggin' the loan of an 'ead-stall an' makin' a mount to the same: 'Can't even look at an 'orselines but some one goes bellerin' "Hi ! " 'Ere comes a burglin' Ikona !" Footsack you M. I. ! We're trekkin' our twenty miles a day an' bein' loved by the Dutch, But we don't hold on by the mane no more, nor lose our stirrups much; 166 THE FIVE NATIONS An' we scout with a senior man in charge where the 'oly white flags fly. We used to think they were friendly once, Didn't take any precautions once (Once, my ducky, an' only once !) But now we are M. I. That is what we are known as we are the beg- gars that got Three days "to learn equitation," an' six months o' bloomin' well trot ! Cow-guns, an' cattle, an' convoys an' Mister De Wet on the fly We are the rollin' Ikonas ! We are the - M. I. ! The new fat regiments come from home, imaginin' vain V. C.'s (The same as our talky-fighty men which are often Number Threes*), But our words o' command are "Scatter" an' "Close" an' "Let your wounded lie." * Horse-holders when in action, and therefore gener- ally under cover. M. I. 167 We used to rescue 'em noble once, Givin' the range as we raised 'em once, Gettin' 'em killed as we saved 'em once But now we are M. I. That is what we are known as we are the lanterns you view After a fight round the kopjes, lookin' for men that we knew; Whistlin' an' callin' together, 'altin' to catch the reply: " 'Elp me ! O 'elp me, Ikonas !" This way, the M. I.! I wish my mother could see me now, a-gatherin' news on my own, When I ride like a General up to the scrub and ride back like Tod Sloan, Remarkable close to my 'orse's neck to let the shots go by. We used to fancy it risky once (Called it a reconnaissance once), Under the charge of an orf'cer once, But now we are M. I. 1 68 THE FIVE NATIONS That is what we are known as that is the song you must say When you want men to be Mausered at one and a penny a day ; We are no five-bob colonials we are the 'ome- made supply, Ask for the London Ikonas ! Ring up the M. I. ! I wish myself could taik to myself as I left 'im a year ago ; I could tell 'im a lot that would save 'im a lot on the things that 'e ought to know ! When I think o' that ignorant barrack-bird, it almost makes me cry. I used to belong in an Army once (Gawd ! what a rum little Army once), Red little, dead little Army once ! But now I am M. I. ! That is what we are known as we are the men that have been Over a year at the business, smelt it an' felt it an' seen. M. I. 169 We 'ave got 'old of the needful you will be told by and bye; Wait till you've 'card the Ikonas, spoke to the old M. I. ! Mount march, Ikonas I Stand to your 'orses again ! Mop off the frost on the saddles, mop up the miles on the plain. Out go the stars in the dawnin', up goes our dust to the sky, Walk trot, Ikonas ! Trek jou* the old M. 1. 1 * Get ahead. COLUMNS (MOBILE COLUMNS OF THE LATER WAR) OUT o' the wilderness, dusty an' dry (Time, an 1 'igh time to be trekkin' again!) 'Oo is it 'eads to the Detail Supply? (A section, a pompom, an' six 'undred men). 'Ere comes the clerk with 'is lantern an' keys (Time, an' 'igh time to be trekkin' again!) "Surplus of everything draw what you please "For the section, the pompom, an' six 'undred men." "What are our orders an' where do we lay?" (Time, an' 'igh time to be trekkin' again!) "You came after dark you will leave before day, " You section, you pompom, an' six 'undred men !" Down the tin street, 'alf awake an' unfed, 'Ark to 'em blessin' the Gen'ral in bed ! 170 COLUMNS 171 Now by the church an' the outspan they wind Over the ridge an' it's all lef be'ind For the section, etc. Soon they will camp as the dawn 's growin' grey, Roll up for coffee an' sleep while they may The section, etc. Read their 'ome letters, their papers an' such, For they'll move after dark to astonish the Dutch With a section, etc. 'Untin' for shade as the long hours pass, Blankets on rifles or burrows in grass, Lies the section, etc. Dossin' or beatin' a shirt in the sun, Watching chameleons or cleanin' a gun, Waits the section, etc. With nothin' but stillness as far as you please, An' the silly mirage stringin' islands an' seas Round the section, etc. 172 THE FIVE NATIONS So they strips off their hide an' they grills in their bones, Till the shadows crawl out from beneath the pore stones Towards the section, etc. An' the Mauser-bird stops an' the jackals begin, An' the 'orse-guard comes up and the Gunners 'ook in As a 'int to the pompom an' six 'undred men. . . Off through the dark with the stars to rely on (Alpha Centauri an' somethin' Orion) Moves the section, etc. Same bloomin' 'ole which the ant-bear 'as broke, Same bloomin' stumble an' same bloomin' joke Down the section, etc. Same "which is right?" where the cart-tracks divide, Same "give it up" from the same clever guide To the section, etc. COLUMNS 173 Same tumble-down on the same 'idden farm, Same white-eyed Kaffir 'oo gives the alarm Of the section, etc. Same shootin' wild at the end o' the night, Same flyin' tackle an' same messy fight By the section, etc. Same ugly 'iccup an' same 'orrid squeal, When it's too dark to see an' it's too late to feel In the section, etc. (Same batch of prisoners, 'airy an' still, Watchin' their comrades bolt over the 'ill From the section, etc.) Same chilly glare in the eye of the sun As 'e gets up displeasured to see what was done By the section, etc. Same splash o' pink on the stoep or the kraal, An' the same quiet face which 'as finished with all In the section, the pompom, an' six 'undred men. 174 THE FIVE NATIONS Out o' the wilderness, dusty an' dry (Time, an' 'igh time to be trekkin' again!) 'Oo is it 'eads to the Detail Supply ? (A section, a pompom, an' six 'undred men) THE PARTING OF THE COLUMNS " . . . On the th instant a mixed detachment of colonials left for Cape Town, there to rejoin their respective homeward-bound contingents, after fifteen months' service in the field. They were escorted to the station by the regular troops in garrison and the bulk of Colonel 's column, which has just come in to refit, preparatory to further operations. The leave- taking was of the most cordial character, the men cheering each other continuously." Any Newspaper. WE'VE rode and fought and ate and drunk as rations come to hand, Together for a year and more around this stinkin' land: Now you are goin' home again, but we must see it through. We needn't tell we liked you well. Good-bye good luck to you ! You 'ad no special call to come, and so you doubled out, And learned us how to camp and cook an' steal a horse and scout: 175 1 76 THE FIVE NATIONS Whatever game we fancied most, you joyful played it too, And rather better on the whole. Good-bye good luck to you ! There isn't much we 'aven't shared, since Kruger cut an' run, The same old work, the same old skoff, the same old dust and sun ; The same old chance that laid us out, or winked an' let us through; The same old Life, the same old Death. Good- bye good luck to you ! Our blood 'as truly mixed with yours all down the Red Cross train, We've bit the same thermometer in Bloeming- typhoidtein. We've 'ad the same old temp'rature the same relapses too, The same old saw-backed fever-chart. Good- bye good luck to you ! THE PARTING OF THE COLUMNS 177 But 'twasn't merely this an' that (which all the world may know), 'Twas how you talked an' looked at things which made us like you so. All independent, queer an' odd, but most amazin' new, My word ! you shook us up to rights. Good- bye good luck to you ! Think o' the stories round the fire, the tales along the trek O' Calgary an' Wellin'ton, an' Sydney and Quebec ; Of mine an' farm, an' ranch an' run, an' moose an* cariboo, An' parrots peckin' lambs to death ! Good- bye good luck to you ! We've seen you 'ome by word o' mouth, we've watched your rivers shine, We've 'eard your bloomin' forests blow of eucalip' an' pine; 178 THE FIVE NATIONS Your young, gay countries north an' south, we feel we own 'em too, For they was made by rank an' file. Good- bye good luck to you ! We'll never read the papers now without inquirin' first For word from all those friendly dorps where you was born an' nursed. Why, Dawson, Galle, an' Montreal Port Dar- win Timaru, They're only just across the road ! Good- bye good luck to you ! Good-bye ! So-long ! . Don't lose yourselves nor us, nor all kind friends, But tell the girls your side the drift we're comin' when it ends ! Good-bye, you bloomin' Atlases ! You've taught us somethin' new: The world's no bigger than a kraal. Good- bye good luck to you ! TWO KOPJES (MADE YEOMANRY) ONLY two African kopjes, Only the cart-tracks that wind Empty and open between 'em, Only the Transvaal behind; Only an Aldershot column Marching to conquer the land . . , x Only a sudden and solemn Visit, unarmed, to the Rand. Then scorn not the African kopje, The kopje that smiles in the heat, The wholly unoccupied kopje, The home of Cornelius and Piet. You can never be sure of your kopje, But of this be you blooming well sure A kopje is always a kopje, And a Boojer is always a Boer ! 179 i8o THE FIVE NATIONS Only two African kopjes, Only the vultures above, Only baboons at the bottom, Only some buck on the move; Only a Kensington draper Only pretending to scout . . . Only bad news for the paper, Only another knock-out. Then mock not the African kopje, And rub not your flank on its side, The silent and simmering kopje, The kopje beloved by the guide. You can never lie, etc. Only two African kopjes, Only the dust of their wheels, Only a bolted commando, Only our guns at their heels . . . Only a little barb-wire, Only a natural fort, Only "by sections retire," Only "regret to report" ! TWO KOPJES 181 Then mock not the African kopje, Especially when it is twins, One sharp and one table-topped kopje, For that's where the trouble begins. You can never be, etc. Only two African kopjes Baited the same as before Only we've had it so often, Only we're taking no more . . . Only a wave to our troopers, Only our flanks swinging past, Only a dozen voorloopers, Only we've learned it at last I Then mock not the African kopje, But take off your hat to the same, The patient, impartial old kopje, The kopje that taught us the game ! For all that we knew in the Columns, And all they've forgot on the Staff, We learned at the fight o' Two Kopjes, Which lasted two years an' a half. 182 THE FIVE NATIONS O mock not the African kopje, Not even when peace has been signed- The kopje that isn't a kopje The kopje that copies its kind. You can never be sure of your kopje, But of this be you blooming well siire, That a kopje is always a kopje, And a Boojer is always a Boer ! THE INSTRUCTOR (CORPORALS) AT times when under cover I 'ave said, To keep my spirits up an' raise a laugh, 'Earin' 'im pass so busy over-'ead Old Nickel Neck, 'oo isn't on the Staff "There's one above is greater than us all." Before 'im I 'ave seen my Colonel fall, An' watched 'im write my Captain's epitaph, So that a long way off it could be read He 'as the knack o' makin' men feel small Old Whistle Tip, 'oo isn't on the Staff. There is no sense in fleein' (I 'ave fled), Better go on an' do the belly-crawl, An' 'ope 'e'll 'it some other man instead Of you 'e seems to 'unt so speshual Fitzy van Spitz, 'oo isn't on the Staff. 183 1 84 THE FIVE NATIONS An' thus in mem'ry's gratis biograph, Now that the show is over, I recall The peevish voice an' 'oary mushroom 'ead Of 'im we owned was greater than us all, 'Oo give instruction to the quick an' the dead- The Shudderin' Beggar not upon the Staff. BOOTS (INFANTRY COLUMNS OP THE EARLIER WAR) WE'RE foot slog slog slog sloggin' over Africa ! Foot foot foot foot sloggin' over Africa (Boots boots boots boots, movin' up and down again !) There's no discharge in the war ! Seven six eleven five nine-an '-twenty mile to-day Four eleven seventeen thirty-two the day before (Boots boots boots boots, movin' up and down again !) There's no discharge in the war ! Don't don't don't don't look at what's in front of you (Boots boots boots boots, movin' up an' down again); 185 186 THE FIVE NATIONS Men men men men men go mad with watchin' 'em, An' there's no discharge in the war. Try try try try to think o' something different Oh my God keep me from goin' lunatic ! (Boots boots boots boots, movin' up an' down again !) There's no discharge in the war. Count count count count the bullets in the bandoliers; If your eyes drop they will get atop o' you (Boots boots boots boots, movin' up and down again) There's no discharge in the war ! We can stick out 'unger, thirst, an' weari- ness, But not not not not the chronic sight of 'em Boots boots boots boots, movin' up an' down again, An' there's no discharge in the war ! BOOTS 187 'Tain't so bad by day because o' com- pany, But night brings long strings o' forty thousand million Boots boots boots boots, movin' up an' down again. There's no discharge in the war ! I 'ave marched six weeks in 'Ell an' certify It is not fire devils dark or anything But boots boots boots, movin' up an' down again, An' there's no discharge in the war ! THE MARRIED MAN (RESERVIST OP THE LINE) THE bachelor 'e fights for one As joyful as can be; But the married man don't call it fun, Because 'e fights for three For 'Im an' 'Er an' It (An' Two an' One makes Three) 'E wants to finish 'is little bit, An' 'e wants to go 'ome to 'is tea ! The bachelor pokes up 'is 'ead To see if you are gone; But the married man lies down instead, An' waits till the sights coine on. For 'Im an' 'Er an' a hit (Direct or ricochee) 'E wants to finish 'is little bit, An' 'e wants to go 'ome to 'is tea. 188 THE MARRIED MAN 189 The bachelor will miss you clear To fight another day; But the married man, 'e says "No fear !" 'E wants you out of the way Of 'Im an' 'Er an' It (An' 'is road to 'is farm or the sea), 'E wants to finish 'is little bit, An' 'e wants to go 'ome to 'is tea. The bachelor 'e fights 'is fight An' stretches out an' snores; But the married man sits up all night For 'e don't like out o' doors: 'E'll strain an' listen an' peer An' give the first alarm For the sake o' the breathin' 'e's used to 'ear An' the 'ead on the thick of 'is arm. The bachelor may risk 'is 'ide To 'elp you when you're downed; But the married man will wait beside Till the ambulance comes round. 1 90 THE FIVE NATIONS 'E'll take your 'ome address An' all you've time to say, Or if 'e sees there's 'ope, 'e'll press Your art'ry 'alf the day For 'Im an' 'Er an' It (An* One from Three leaves Two), For 'e knows you wanted to finish your bit, An' 'e knows 'oo's wantin' you. Yes, 'Im an' 'Er an' It (Our 'oly One in Three), We're all of us anxious to finish our bit, An' we want to get 'ome to our tea ! Yes, It an' 'Er an' 'Im, Which often makes me think The married man must sink or swim An' 'e can't afford to sink ! Oh 'Im an' It an' 'Er Since Adam an' Eve began, So I'd rather fight with the bachekr An' be nursed by the married man ! LICHTENBERG (N. s. w. CONTINGENT) SMELLS are surer than sounds or sights To make your heart-strings crack They start those awful voices o' nights That whisper, "Old man, come back." That must be why the big things pass And the little things remain, Like the smell of the wattle by Lichtenberg, Riding in, in the rain. There was some silly fire on the flank And the small wet drizzling down There were the sold-out shops and the bank And the wet, wide-open town; And we were doing escort-duty To somebody's baggage-train, And I smelt wattle by Lichtenberg Riding in, in the rain. 191 192 THE FIVE NATIONS It was all Australia to me All I had found or missed: Every face I was crazy to see, And every woman I'd kissed: All that I shouldn't ha' done, God knows ! (As He knows I'll do it again), That smell of the wattle round Lichtenberg, Riding in, in the rain ! I saw Sydney the same as ever, The picnics and brass-bands; And the little homestead on Hunter River And my new vines joining hands. It all came over me in one act Quick as a shot through the brain With the smell of the wattle round Lichtenberg, Riding in, in the rain ! I have forgotten a hundred fights, But one I shall not forget With the raindrops bunging up my sights And my eyes bunged up with wet ; LICHTENBERG 193 And through the crack and the stink of the cordite (Ah Christ ! My country again !) The smell of the wattle by Lichtenberg, Riding in, in the rain ! STELLENBOSH (COMPOSITE COLUMNS) THE General 'card the firm' on the flank, An' 'e sent a mounted man to bring 'im back, The silly, pushin' person's name an' rank, 'Oo'd dared to answer Brother Boer's attack. For there might 'ave been a serious engagement, An' 'e might 'ave wasted 'alf a dozen men; So 'e ordered 'im to stop 'is operations round the kopjes, An' 'e told 'im off before the Staff at ten ! And it all goes into the laundry, But it never comes out in the wash, 'Ow we're sugared about by the old men ('Eavy-sterned amateur old men !) That 'amper an' 'inder an' scold men For fear of Stellenbosh ! The General 'ad "produced a great effect," The General 'ad the country cleared almost ; The General " 'ad no reason to expect, " And the Boers 'ad us bloomin' well on toast ! 194 STELLENBOSH 195 For we might 'ave crossed the drift before the twilight, Instead o' sitting down an' takin' root; But we was not allowed, so the Boojers scooped the crowd, To the last survivin' bandolier an" boot. The General saw the farm'otise in 'is rear, With its stoep so nicely shaded from the sun ; Sez 'e, " I'll pitch my tabernacle "ere," An' 'e kept us muckin' round till 'e 'ad done. For 'e might 'ave caught the confluent pneu- monia From sleepin' in his gaiters in the dew; So 'e took a book an' dozed while the other columns closed, And 's commando out an' trickled through ! The General saw the mountain-range ahead, With their 'elios showin' saucy on the 'eight, So 'e 'eld us to the level ground instead, An' telegraphed the Boojers wouldn't fight. IQ6 THE FIVE NATIONS For 'e might 'ave gone an' sprayed 'em with a pompom, Or 'e might 'ave slung a squadron out to see But 'e wasn't takin' chances in them 'igh an' 'ostile kranzes He was markin' time to earn a K.C.B The General got 'is decorations thick (The men that backed 'is lies could not complain), The Staff 'ad D.S.O.'s till we was sick, An' the soldier 'ad the work to do again ! For 'e might 'ave known the District was a 'otbed, Instead of 'andin' over, upside-down, To a man 'oo 'ad to fight 'alf a year to put it right, While the General went an' slandered 'im in town! An' it all went into the laundry, But it never came out in the wash. We were sugared about by the old men (Panicky, perishin' old men) That 'amper an' 'inder and scold men For fear o' Stellenbosh ! HALF-BALLAD OF WATERVAL WHEN by the labour of my 'ands I've 'elped to pack a transport tight With prisoners for foreign lands, I ain't transported with delight. I know it's only just an' right, But yet it somehow sickens me, For I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity. Be'ind the pegged barb- wire strands, Beneath the tall electric light, We used to walk in bare-'ead bands, Explainin' 'ow we lost our fight. An' that is what they'll do to-night Upon the steamer out at sea, If I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity. 197 198 THE FIVE NATIONS They'll never know the shame that brands Black shame no livin' down makes white, The mockin' from the sentry-stands, The women's laugh, the gaoler's spite. We are too bloomin' much polite, But that is 'ow I'd 'ave us be . . . Since I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity. They'll get those draggin' days all right, Spent as a foreigner commands, An' 'errors of the locked-up night, With 'Ell's own thinkin' on their 'ands. I'd give the gold o' twenty Rands (If it was mine) to set 'em free . . For I 'ave learned at Waterval The meanin' of captivity ! PIET (REGULAR OF THE LINE) I DO not love my Empire's foes, Nor call 'em angels; still, What is the sense of 'atin' those 'Oom you are paid to kill ? So, barrin' all that foreign lot Which only joined for spite, Myself, I'd just as soon as not Respect the man I fight. Ah there, Piet ! 'is trousies to 'is knees, 'Is coat-tails lyin' level in the bullet- sprinkled breeze; 'E does not lose 'is rifle an' 'e does not lose 'is seat, I've known a lot o' people ride a dam' sight worse than Piet ! 199 200 THE FIVE NATIONS I've 'card 'im cryin' from the ground Like Abel's blood of old, An' skirmished out to look, an' found The beggar nearly cold; I've waited on till 'e was dead (Which couldn't 'elp 'im much), But many grateful things 'e's said To me for doin' such. Ah there, Piet ! whose time 'as come to die, 'Is carcase past rebellion, but 'is eyes inquirin' why. Though dressed in stolen uniform with badge o' rank complete, I've known a lot o' fellers go a dam' sight worse than Piet. An' when there wasn't aught to do But camp and cattle-guards, I've fought with 'im the 'ole day through At fifteen 'undred yards; Long afternoons o' lyin' still, An' 'earin' as you lay The bullets swish from 'ill to 'ill Like scythes among the 'ay.- PIET 201 Ah there, Piet ! be'ind 'is stony kop, With 'is Boer bread an' biltong, an' 'is flask of awful Dop; 'Is Mauser for amusement an' 'is pony for retreat, I've known a lot o' fellers shoot a dam' sight worse than Piet. He's shoved 'is rifle 'neath my nose Before I'd time to think, An' borrowed all my Sunday clo'es An' sent me 'ome in pink; An' I 'ave crept (Lord, 'ow I've crept !) On 'ands an' knees I've gone, And spoored and floored and caught and kept An' sent him to Ceylon ! Ah there, Piet ! you've sold me many a pup, When week on week alternate it was you an' me " 'ands up !" But though I never made you walk man-naked in the 'eat, I've known a lot of fellers stalk a dam' sight worse than Piet. 202 THE FIVE NATIONS From Plewman's to Marabastad, From Ookiep to De Aar Me an' my trusty friend 'ave 'ad, As you might say, a war; But seein' what both parties done Before 'e owned defeat, I ain't more proud of 'avin' won, Than I am pleased with Piet. Ah there, Piet ! picked up be'ind the drive ! The wonder wasn't 'ow 'e fought, but 'ow 'e kep' alive, With no thin' in 'is belly, on 'is back, or to 'is feet I've known a lot o' men behave a dam' sight worse than Piet. No more I'll 'ear 'is rifle crack Along the block 'ouse fence The beggar's on the peaceful tack, Regardless of expense. For countin' what 'e eats an' draws, An' gifts an' loans as well, 'E's gettin' 'alf the Earth, because 'E didn't give us 'Ell ! PIET 203 Ah there, Piet ! with your brand-new English plough, Your gratis tents an' cattle, an' your most ungrateful frow. You've made the British taxpayer rebuild your country-seat I've known some pet battalions charge a dam' sight less than Piet. "WILFUL-MISSING" THERE is a world outside the one you know, To which for curiousness 'Ell can't compare It is the place where "wilful-missings" go, As we can testify, for we are there. You may 'ave read a bullet laid us low, That we was gathered in "with reverent care" And buried proper. But it was not so, As we can testify, for we are there. They can't be certain faces alter so After the old aasvogel 's 'ad 'is share; The uniform's the mark by which they go And ain't it odd? the one we best can spare. We might 'ave seen our chance to cut the show Name, number, record, an' begin elsewhere Leavin' some not too late-lamented fde One funeral private British for 'is share. 204 "WILFUL-MISSING" 205 We may 'ave took it yonder in the Low Bush-veldt that sends men stragglin' unaware Among the Kaffirs, till their columns go, An' they are left past call or count or care. We might 'ave been your lovers long ago, 'Usbands or children comfort or despair. Our death (an* burial) settles all we owe, An* why we done it is our own affair. Marry again, and we will not say no, Nor come to bastardise the kids you bear: Wait on in 'ope you've all your life below Before you'll ever 'ear us on the stair. There is no need to give our reasons, though Gawd knows we all 'ad reasons which were fair; But other people might not judge 'em so, And now it doesn't matter what they were. What man can size or weigh another's woe? There are some things too bitter 'ard to bear. Suffice it we 'ave finished Domino ! As we can testify, for we are there, In the side-world where "wilful-missings" go. UBIQUE THERE is a word you often see, pronounce it as you may "You bike," "you bykwe," "ubbikwe" alludin' to R. A. It serves 'Orse, Field, an' Garrison as motto for a crest, An' when you've found out all it means I'll tell you 'alf the rest. Ubique means the long-range Krupp be'ind the low-range 'ill Ubique means you'll pick it up an' while you do stand still. Ubique means you've caught the flash an' timed it by the sound. Ubique means five gunners' 'ash before you've loosed a round. 206 UBIQUE 207 Ubique means Blue Fuse, an' make the 'ole to sink the trail. Ubique means stand up an' take the Mauser's 'alf-mile 'ail. Ubique means the crazy team not God nor man can 'old. Ubique means that 'orse's scream which turns your innards cold ! Ubique means " Bank, 'Olborn, Bank a penny all the way" The soothin', jingle-bump-an'-clank from day to peaceful day. Ubique means "They've caught De Wet, an' now we shan't be long." Ubique means "I much regret, the beggar's goin' strong !" Ubique means the tearin' drift where, breech- blocks jammed with mud, The khaki muzzles duck an' lift across the khaki flood. 208 THE FIVE NATIONS Ubique means the dancing plain that changes rocks to Boers. Ubique means the mirage again an' shellin' all outdoors. Ubique means "Entrain at once for Groot- defeatfontein " ! Ubique means "Off-load your guns" at mid- night in the rain ! Ubique means "More mounted men. Return all guns to store." Ubique means the R. A. M. R. Infantillery Corps ! Ubique means that warnin' grunt the perished linesman knows, When o'er 'is strung an' sufferin' front the shrapnel sprays 'is foes; An' as their firm' dies away the 'usky whisper runs From lips that 'aven't drunk all day: "The Guns ! Thank Gawd, the Guns !" UBIQUE 209 Extreme, depressed, point-blank or short, end- first or any 'ow, From Colesberg Kop to Quagga's Poort from Ninety-Nine till now By what I've 'eard the others tell an' I in spots 'ave seen, There's nothin' this side 'Eaven or 'Ell Ubique doesn't mean ! THE RETURN (ALL ARMS) PEACE is declared, an' I return To 'Ackneystadt, but not the same; Things 'ave transpired which made me learn The size and meanin' of the game. I did no more than others did, I don't know where the change began; I started as a average kid, I finished as a thinkin' man. // England was what England seems An' not the England of our dreams, But only putty, brass, an' paint, 'Ow quick we'd drop 'er I But she ain't ! Before my gappin' mouth could speak I 'eard it in my comrade's tone; I saw it on my neighbour's cheek Before I felt it flush my own. 210 THE RETURN 211 An' last it come to me not pride, Nor yet conceit, but on the 'ole (If such a terni may be applied), The makin's of a bloomin' soul. Rivers at night that cluck an' jeer, Plains which the moonshine turns to sea, Mountains that never let you near, An' stars to all eternity; An' the quick-breathin' dark that fills The 'ollows of the wilderness, When the wind worries through the 'ills These may 'ave taught me more or less. Towns without people, ten times took, An' ten times left an' burned at last; An' starvin' dogs that come to look For owners when a column passed; An' quiet, 'omesick talks between Men, met by night, you never knew Until 'is face by shellfire seen Once an' struck off. They taught me too. 212 THE FIVE NATIONS The day's lay-out the mornin' sun Beneath your 'at-brim as you sight; The dinner-'ush from noon till one, An' the full roar that lasts till night; An' the pore dead that look so old An' was so young an hour ago, An' legs tied down before they're cold These are the things which make you know. Also Time runnin' into years A thousand Places left be'ind An' Men from both two 'emispheres Discussin' things of every kind; So much more near than I 'ad known, So much more great than I 'ad guessed An' me, like all the rest, alone But reachin' out to all the rest ! So 'ath it come to me not pride, Nor yet conceit, but on the 'ole (If such a term may be applied), The makin's of a bloomin' soul. THE RETURN 213 But now, discharged, I fall away To do with little things again. . . . Gawd, 'oo knows all I cannot say, Look after me in Thamesfontein ! // England was what England seems An' not the England of our dreams, But only putty, brass, an' paint, 'Ow quick we'd chuck 'er ! But she ain't ! RECESSIONAL (1897) GOD of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung battle-line, Beneath whose awful Hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget lest we forget ! The tumult and the shouting dies ; The captains and the kings depart: Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget lest we forget ! Far-called, our navies melt away; On dune and headland sinks the fire: Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre ! Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget lest we forget ! 214 RECESSIONAL 215 If, drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe, Such boastings as the Gentiles use, Or lesser breeds without the Law Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget lest we forget ! For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard, All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guarding, calls not Thee to guard, For frantic boast and foolish word Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord ! Amen. ,.!,S& N . REGIONA I- LIBRARY FACILITY A 001 146348 6 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. MAY 1 2MB