Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.
The Legends of Evil
Told as the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
Holding their neighbours’ tails:—
“Foolish people were they,
“They went down to the cornland
“To teach the farmers to play.
“Our fathers skipped in the wheat,
“Our fathers hung from the branches,
“Our fathers danced in the street.
“Nothing of play they knew,
“Only … they caught our fathers
“And set them to labour too!
“With ploughs and sickles and flails,
“Put them in mud-walled prisons,
“And—cut off their beautiful tails!
“Sullen and bowed and old,
“Stooping over the millet,
“Sharing the silly mould,
“Mending a muddy yoke,
“Sleeping in mud-walled prisons,
“Steeping their food in smoke.
“For if the farmers knew
“They would come up to the forest
“And set us to labour too.”
Told as the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
Holding their neighbours’ tails.
That Noah got his orders for to take the bastes below;
He dragged them all together by the horn an’ hide an’ feather,
An’ all excipt the Donkey was agreeable to go.
An’ thin he cursed him squarely to the glory av the Lord:—
“Divil take the ass that bred you, and the greater ass that fed you—
“Divil go wid ye, ye spalpeen!” an’ the Donkey wint aboard.
An’ the ladies in the cabin couldn’t stand the stable air;
An’ the bastes betwuxt the hatches, they tuk an’ died in batches,
Till Noah said:—“There’s wan av us that hasn’t paid his fare!”
The trumpetin’ av elephints an’ bellowin’ av whales;
An’ he saw forninst the windy whin he wint to stop the shindy
The Divil wid a stable-fork was bedivillin’ their tails.
“To what am I indebted for this tenant-right invasion?”
An’ the Divil gave for answer: “Evict me if you can, sir,
“For I came in wid the Donkey—on Your Honour’s invitation.”