EN-DOR

Evening Star, Issue 17543, 24 December 1920, Page 3

EN-DOR

"Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor."—l Samuel, xxviii., Tho road to En-dor is easy to tread For Mother or yearning Wife; There, it is sure, we shah meet our dead As they were even in life. Earth has not dreamed of the blessing in store For desolate hearts on the road to En-dor. Whispers shall comfort us out of the darkHands—all, God!—that we knew! Visions and voices—look and hark ! Shall prove that our tale is true, And that those who have passed to the further shore May be hailed—at a price—on the road to En-dor. But they are so deep in their new eclipse, Nothing they say can reach Unless it be uttered' by alien lips And framed in a stranger's speech. The son must send word to the mother that

boro Through an hireling's mouth. Tis the rule of En-dor. And not for nothing these gifts are shown . By such as delight our dead; ' They must twitch and stiffen, and slaver and groan, Ere the eyes arc set in the head And the voice from the belly begins. Therefore We pay them a wage when they ply at En-dor.

Even so, we have need of faith And patience to follow the clue; Often at first what the dear one saith Is babble, or jest, or untrue. . • Lying spirits perplex us sore Till our loves—and our lives—are well known at En-dor. Oh, the road to En-dor is the oldest road And the craziest road of all! Straight it runs to the Witch's abode, As it did in the days of Saul; And nothing has changed of the sorrow in store For such as go down on the road to Endor. —Rudyard Kipling, in ' The Years Between.'