Verses 1889-1896 - Rudyard Kipling

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Kamal has gripped him by the hand and set him upon his feet.

        “No talk shall be of dogs,” said he, “when wolf and gray wolf meet.

        May I eat dirt if thou hast hurt of me in deed or breath;

        What dam of lances brought thee forth to jest at the dawn with Death?”

         Lightly answered the Colonel’s son:  “I hold by the blood of my clan:

        Take up the mare for my father’s gift – by God, she has carried a man!”

         The red mare ran to the Colonel’s son, and nuzzled against his breast;

        “We be two strong men,” said Kamal then, “but she loveth the younger best.

        So she shall go with a lifter’s dower, my turquoise-studded rein,

        My broidered saddle and saddle-cloth, and silver stirrups twain.”

         The Colonel’s son a pistol drew and held it muzzle-end,

        “Ye have taken the one from a foe,” said he;

          “will ye take the mate from a friend?”

         “A gift for a gift,” said Kamal straight; “a limb for the risk of a limb.

        Thy father has sent his son to me, I’ll send my son to him!”

         With that he whistled his only son, that dropped from a mountain-crest —

        He trod the ling like a buck in spring, and he looked like a lance in rest.

        “Now here is thy master,” Kamal said, “who leads a troop of the Guides,

        And thou must ride at his left side as shield on shoulder rides.

        Till Death or I cut loose the tie, at camp and board and bed,

        Thy life is his – thy fate it is to guard him with thy head.

        So, thou must eat the White Queen’s meat, and all her foes are thine,

        And thou must harry thy father’s hold for the peace of the Border-line,

        And thou must make a trooper tough and hack thy way to power —

        Belike they will raise thee to Ressaldar when I am hanged in Peshawur.”

        They have looked each other between the eyes, and there they found no fault,

        They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on leavened bread and salt:

        They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on fire and fresh-cut sod,

        On the hilt and the haft of the Khyber knife, and the Wondrous Names of God.

        The Colonel’s son he rides the mare and Kamal’s boy the dun,

        And two have come back to Fort Bukloh where there went forth but one.

        And when they drew to the Quarter-Guard, full twenty swords flew clear —

        There was not a man but carried his feud with the blood of the mountaineer.

        “Ha’ done! ha’ done!” said the Colonel’s son.

          “Put up the steel at your sides!

        Last night ye had struck at a Border thief —

          to-night ‘tis a man of the Guides!”

             Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

             Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;

             But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

             When two strong men stand face to face,

               tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!

      THE LAST SUTTEE

             Not many years ago a King died in one of the Rajpoot States.

             His wives, disregarding the orders of the English against Suttee,

             would have broken out of the palace had not the gates been barred.

             But one of them, disguised as the King’s favourite dancing-girl,

             passed through the line of guards and reached the pyre.  There,

             her courage failing, she prayed her cousin, a baron of the court,

             to kill her.  This he did, not knowing who she was.

        Udai Chand lay sick to death

            In his hold by Gungra hill.

        All night we heard the death-gongs ring

        For the soul of the dying Rajpoot King,

        All night beat up from the women’s wing

            A cry that we could not still.

        All night the barons came and went,

            The lords of the outer guard:

        All night the cressets glimmered pale

        On Ulwar sabre and Tonk jezail,

        Mewar headstall and Marwar mail,

            That clinked in the palace yard.

        In the Golden room on the palace roof

            All night he fought for air:

        And there was sobbing behind the screen,

        Rustle and whisper of women unseen,

        And the hungry eyes of the Boondi Queen

            On the death she might not share.

        He passed at dawn – the death-fire leaped

            From ridge to river-head,

        From the Malwa plains to the Abu scars:

        And wail upon wail went up to the stars

        Behind the grim zenana-bars,

            When they knew that the King was dead.

        The dumb priest knelt to tie his mouth

            And robe him for the pyre.

        The Boondi Queen beneath us cried:

        “See, now, that we die as our mothers died

        In the bridal-bed by our master’s side!

            Out, women! – to the fire!”

        We drove the great gates home apace:

            White hands were on the sill:

        But ere the rush of the unseen feet

        Had reached the turn to the open street,

        The bars shot down, the guard-drum beat —

            We held the dovecot still.

        A face looked down in the gathering day,

            And laughing spoke from the wall:

        “Oh]/e, they mourn here:  let me by —

        Azizun, the  Lucknow nautch-girl, I!

        When the house is rotten, the rats must fly,

            And I seek another thrall.

        “For I ruled the King as ne’er did Queen, —

            To-night the Queens rule me!

        Guard them safely, but let me go,

        Or ever

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