Poetry

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2790, 31 May 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

Poetry

A BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST. Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border sido, And he has lifted the colonel's mare that is &he colonel's pride; He has lifted hoi out or the stable door between the dawn and day. And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away. Then up and spoke the colonel's son that led a troop of the Guides : "Is there never a man of all my men can say whore Kamal hides ?" Then up and spoke Mohammed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar : " If ye know the track of the morning mist, ye know where his pockets are. At "dusk he harries the Abazi—at dawn he ia into Bonair— But lie must go by Fort Monroe to his own place to fare; So if ye gallop to Fort Monroe, as fast as a • bird can fly, By the favour of God ye may cut him off ere I he win to the Tongue of Jagai But if he be passed the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then, For the length and the breadth of that grizzly plain is sown with Kamal's men." The colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw rough dun was he, With the mouth of a bell and the heart of Hell and the head of the gallows tree. The colonel's son to the fort has won, they bid him stay to eat — Who rides at the tail of a border thief, he sits no longer at his meat, H«'s up and away from Fort Monroe as I fast as he can fly. Till he was aware of his father's mare in the gut of the Tongue of Jagai. Till he was aware of his father's mars with Kamal upon her back, And, when he could spy the white of her eye, he made the pistol crack. He has fired once, he has fired twice, but the whistling ball went wide ; " Ye shoot like a soldier," Kamal said. " Show now if you can ride." It's up and over the Tongue of Jagai, as blown dust dovils go ; The dun he fled like a stag of ten, but the mara like a barren doe. The dun he leaned against the bit and slugged his head above, But the red mare played with tho snaffle bars as a lady plays with a glove. They have ridden the low moon out of the sky, their hoofs di>:m up'the dawn. The dun he went like a wounded bull, but the mare like a new roused fawn. The dun he fell at a water-course—in a woeful heap fell he— And Kamal has turned the red mare back, and pulled the rider free. He has knocked the pistol out of his hand — small room was there to strive — " 'Twas only by favor of mine," quoth he, " ye rode so long alive. There was not a rock for twenty miles, there was not a clump of tree. Butcovored a man of my own men with his rifle cocked on his knee. If I had raised my bridle hand, as I have held it low, The little jackals that flee so fast were feasting all in a row ; If I had bowed by head on my breast, as 1 have held it high, The kite that whistles above us now were gnrged till she could not fly." Lightly answered tho colonel's son:—"Do good to bird and beast. But count who come for the broken meats before thou makest a feast. If there should fullow a thousand swords to carry my bones away, Belike the price of a jackal's meal were more than a thief could pay. They will feed their horse on the standing crop, their men on the garnered grain, The thatch of the byres will serve their fires when all their cattle are slain, But if thou thinkest the price be fair, and thy brethren wait to sup, The hound ia kin to tho jackal spawn— howl, dog, and call them up ! And if thou thinkest the price be high, in steer and gear and stack, Give me roy father's mare again, and I'll fight my own way back !" Kamal has gripped him by the hand and set him upon his feet. "No talk shall be of dogs," said he, "when wolf and grey wolf meet. May I cat dirt if thou hast hurt of me in deed or breath, What dam ot lances brought thee forth to jest at the dawn of Death !" Lightly answered the colonel's son: "I : hold by the blood of my clan ; Take up the mare for my father's gift—she will cary no bettor man !"_ The red mare ran to the colonel's son, and nuzzled against his breast. " We bo two strong men," said Kamal then, " but she loveth the younger best. So she shall go with the 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 tho 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 sou 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 sido as shield to shoulder rides, Till Death or I cut loose the tie, at camp and board and bed, Thy life is hip—thy fate it is to guard him with thy head, And thou must eat tho White Queen's meat, and all her foes arc? thine, Apd thou must harry thy father's hold for the peace of the Border line, And thou must make a trooper tough, and back thy way to powerBelike 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 Oatn 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, Kamal's boy the dun, And two have come back to Fort Monroe 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 ot 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 ot the Guides." Oh east is east, and west is west, and nover ' the two shall meet Till earth and sky stand presently ak God's great Judgment Seat. But there is neither oast nor west, border or breed or birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth. Yuasui', in MacMillan's Magazine.