Divided Destinies

905 He said: "Oh, man of many clothes! sad crawler on the Hills!

Observe, I know not Ranken's shop, nor Ranken's monthly

bills!

I take no heed to trousers or the coats that you call dress; Nor am I plagued with little cards for little drinks at Mess.

"I steal the bunnia's grain at morn, at noon and eventide (For he is fat and I am spare), I roam the mountainside, I follow no man's carriage, and no, never in my life Have I flirted at Peliti's with another Bandar's wife.

"Oh, man of futile fopperies-unnecessary wraps; I own no ponies in the Hills, I drive no tall-wheeled traps; I buy me not twelve-button gloves, short-sixes' eke, or rings,

Nor do I waste at Hamilton's my wealth on pretty things.

"I quarrel with my wife at home, we never fight abroad; But Mrs. B. has grasped the fact I am her only lord. I never heard of fever-dumps nor debts depress my soul; And I pity and despise you!" Here he pouched my breakfast-roll.

His hide was very mangy and his face was very red,
And undisguisedly he scratched with energy his head.
His manners were not always nice, but how my spirit cried
To be an artless Bandar loose upon the mountainside!

So I answered: "Gentle Bandar, an inscrutable Decree Makes thee a gleesome, fleasome Thou, and me a wretched Me.

Go! Depart in peace, my brother, to thy home amid the pine;

Yet forget not once a mortal wished to change his lot with

thine."

Rudyard Kipling.

THE VIPER

YET another great truth I record in my verse,
That some Vipers are venomous, some the reverse;
A fact you may prove if you try,

By procuring two Vipers and letting them bite;
With the first you are only the worse for a fright,
But after the second you die.

Hilaire Belloc.

THE LLAMA ·

THE Llama is a woolly sort of fleecy, hairy goat,
With an indolent expression and an undulating throat,
Like an unsuccessful literary man.

And I know the place he lives in (or at least I think I do)
It is Ecuador, Brazil or Chile-possibly Peru;

You must find it in the Atlas if you can.

The Llama of the Pampases you never should confound (In spite of a deceptive similarity of sound),

With the Lhama who is Lord of Turkestan.
For the former is a beautiful and valuable beast,
But the latter is not lovable nor useful in the least;
And the Ruminant is preferable surely to the Priest
Who battens on the woful superstitions of the East,
The Mongol of the Monastery of Shan.

Hilaire Belloc.

THE YAK

As a friend to the children commend me the yak,
You will find it exactly the thing:

It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back,
Or lead it about with a string.

The Microbe

A Tartar who dwells on the plains of Thibet (A desolate region of snow)

Has for centuries made it a nursery pet,

And surely the Tartar should know!

Then tell your papa where the Yak can be got,

And if he is awfully rich,

He will buy you the creature-or else he will not, (I cannot be positive which).

THE FROG

Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As "Slimy-Skin," or "Polly-wog,"
Or likewise, "Uncle James,"
Or "Gape-a-grin," or "Toad-gone-wrong,"
Or "Billy-Bandy-knees; "

The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.

No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair,

At least, so lonely people say

Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare).

907

Hilaire Belloc.

THE MICROBE

THE Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots

On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen-
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us that they must be so.
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!

Hilaire Belloc.

THE GREAT BLACK CROW

THE Crow the crow! the great black crow!
He cares not to meet us wherever we go;
He cares not for man, beast, friend, nor foe,
For nothing will eat him he well doth know.
Know-know! you great black crow!

It's a comfort to feel like a great black crow!

The crow-the crow! the great black crow!
He loves the fat meadow-his taste is low;
He loves the fat worms, and he dines in a row
With fifty fine cousins all black as a sloe.

Sloe-sloe! you great black crow!

But it's jolly to fare like a great black crow!

The crow-the crow! the great black crow!
He never gets drunk on the rain or snow;
He never gets drunk, but he never says no!
If you press him to tipple ever so.

So-so! you great black crow!

It's an honour to soak like a great black crow!

The crow-the crow! the great black crow!

He lives for a hundred year and mo';
He lives till he dies, and he dies as slow

As the morning mists down the hill that go.
Go-go! you great black crow!

But it's fine to live and die like a great black crow!

Philip James Bailey.

The Colubriad

909

THE COLUBRIAD

CLOSE by the threshold of a door nailed fast,
Three kittens sat; each kitten looked aghast.
I, passing swift and inattentive by,

At the three kittens cast a careless eye;

Not much concerned to know what they did there;
Not deeming kittens worth a poet's care.

But presently, a loud and furious hiss

Caused me to stop, and to exclaim, "What's this
When lo! upon the threshold met my view,

With head erect, and eyes of fiery hue,

A viper long as Count de Grasse's queue.

Forth from his head his forked tongue he throws,
Darting it full against a kitten's nose;

Who, having never seen, in field or house,
The like, sat still and silent as a mouse;

Only projecting, with attention due,

Her whiskered face, she asked him, "Who are you?"
On to the hall went I, with pace not slow,
But swift as lightning, for a long Dutch hoe:
With which well armed, I hastened to the spot
To find the viper-but I found him not.
And, turning up the leaves and shrubs around,
Found only that he was not to be found;
But still the kittens, sitting as before,
Sat watching close the bottom of the door.
"I hope," said I, "the villain I would kill
Has slipped between the door and the door-sill;
And if I make despatch, and follow hard,
No doubt but I shall find him in the yard:"
(For long ere now it should have been rehearsed,
'Twas in the garden that I found him first.)
E'en there I found him: there the full-grown cat
His head, with velvet paw, did gently pat;
As curious as the kittens erst had been
To learn what this phenomenon might mean.
Filled with heroic ardour at the sight,
And fearing every moment he would bite,