Now Chil the Kite brings home the night That Mang the Bat sets free– The herds are shut in byre and hut For loosed till dawn are we. This is the hour of pride and power, Talon and tush and claw. Oh hear the call!–Good hunting all That keep the Jungle Law! Mowgli’s Brothers. * […]

The wind took off with the sunset– The fog came up with the tide, When the Witch of the North took an Egg-shell With a little Blue Devil inside. ‘Sink,’ she said, ‘or swim,’ she said, ‘It’s all you will get from me. And that is the finish of him!’ she said. And the Egg-shell […]

The Bricklayer: I tell this tale, which is strictly true, Just by way of convincing you How very little, since things mere made, Things have altered in the building trade. A year ago, come the middle of March, We was building flats near the Marble Arch, When a thin young man with coal-black hair Came […]

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet, Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street. Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie, Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark– Brandy for the Parson, ‘Baccy for the […]

(A.D. 1487) Harry, our King in England, from London town is gone, And comen to Hamull on the Hoke in the countie of Suthampton. For there lay The Mary of the Tower, his ship of war so strong, And he would discover, certaynely, if his shipwrights did him wrong. He told not none of his […]

About the time that taverns shut And men can buy no beer, Two lads went up to the keepers’ hut To steal Lord Pelham’s deer. Night and the liquor was in their heads– They laughed and talked no bounds, Till they waked the keepers on their beds, And the keepers loosed the hounds. They had […]

‘What’s that that hirples at my side?’ The foe that you must fight, my lord. ‘That rides as fast as I can ride?’ The shadow of your might, my lord. ‘Then wheel my horse against the foe!’ He’s down and overpast, my lord. You war against the sunset glow, The judgment follows fast, my lord. […]

Old Horn to All Atlantic said: (A-hay O! To me O!’) ‘Now where did Frankie learn his trade? For he ran me down with a three-reef mains’le.’ (All round the Horn!) Atlantic answered:–‘Not from me! You’d better ask the cold North Sea, For he ran me down under all plain canvas.’ (All round the Horn!) […]

When the drums begin to beat Down the street, When the poles are fetched and guyed, When the tight-rope’s stretched and tied, When the dance-girls make salaam, When the snake-bag wakes alarm, When the pipes set up their drone, When the sharp-edged knives are thrown, When the red-hot coals are shown, To be swallowed by […]

There’s no wind along these seas. Out oars for Stavanger! Forward all for Stavanger! So we must wake the white-ash breeze, Let fall for Stavanger! A long pull for Stavanger! Oh, hear the benches creak and strain! (A long pull for Stavanger!) She thinks she smells the Northland rain! (A long pull for Stavanger!) She […]

Song of the Returning Hunter (Esquimaux). Our gloves are stiff with the frozen blood, Our furs with the drifted snow, As we come in with the seal–the seal! In from the edge of the floe. An jana! Aua! Oha! Haq! And the yelping dog-teams go, And the long whips crack, and the men come back, […]

As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled– Once, twice and again! And a doe leaped up, and a doe leaped up From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. This I, scouting alone, beheld, Once, twice and again! As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled– Once, twice and again! And […]

(Neolithic) Once we feared The Beast–when he followed us we ran, Ran very fast though we knew It was not right that The Beast should master Man; But what could we Flint-workers do? The Beast only grinned at our spears round his ears– Grinned at the hammers that we made; But now we will hunt […]

My Brother kneels, so saith Kabir, To stone and brass in heathen-wise, But in my brother’s voice I hear My own unanswered agonies. His God is as his fates assign, His prayer is all the world’s–and mine.

(Sung in honour of Rikki-tikki-tavi) Singer and tailor am I– Doubled the joys that I know– Proud of my lilt to the sky, Proud of the house that I sew– Over and under, so weave I my music–so weave I the house that I sew. Sing to your fledglings again, Mother, O lift up your […]

[Footnote: 1895] We were wallowing through the China Seas in a dense fog, the horn blowing every two minutes for the benefit of the fishery craft that crowded the waterways. From the bridge the fo’c’sle was invisible; from the hand-wheel at the stern the captain’s cabin. The fog held possession of everything–the pearly white fog. […]

‘Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Who bidst the mighty ocean keep Its own appointed limits deep.’ The lady passengers were trying the wheezy old harmonium in front of the cuddy, because it was Sunday night. In the patch of darkness near the wheel-grating sat the Captain, and the […]

The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky, The deer to the wholesome wold, And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid, As it was in the days of old. Gypsy Song. SCENE.–Interior of MISS MINNIE THREEGAN’S bedroom at Simla. MISS THREEGAN, in window-seat, turning over a drawerful of things. MISS EMMA […]

Certain people of importance. SCENE.–Smoking-room of the Deychi Club. Time, 10.30 P. M. of a stuffy night in the Rains. Four men dispersed in picturesque attitudes and easy-chairs. To these enter BLAYNE of the Irregular Moguls, in evening dress. BLAYNE. Phew! The Judge ought to be hanged in his own store-godown. Hi, khitmatgar! Poora whiskey-peg, […]

And are not afraid with any amazement. —Marriage service. SCENE.-A bachelor’s bedroom–toilet-table arranged with unnatural neatness. CAPTAIN GADSBY asleep and snoring heavily. Time, 10.30 A. M.–a glorious autumn day at Simla. Enter delicately CAPTAIN MAFFLIM of GADSBY’S regiment. Looks at sleeper, and shakes his head murmuring ‘Poor Gaddy.’ Performs violent fantasia with hair-brushes on chair-back. […]