Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/238

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54
THE LAMENT OF THE

It's woe to bend the stubborn back
Above the grinching quern,
It's woe to hear the leg-bar clack
And jingle when I turn!


But for the sorrow and the shame,
The brand on me and mine,
I'll pay you back in leaping flame
And loss of the butchered kine.


For every cow I spared before
In charity set free,
If I may reach my hold once more
I'll reive an honest three!


For every time I raised the low
That scared the dusty plain,
By sword and cord, by torch and tow
I'll light the land with twain!


Ride hard, ride hard to Abazai,
Young sahib with the yellow hair—
Lie close, lie close as khuttucks lie,
Fat herds below Bonair!