6 34 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE
Dear-bought and clear, a thousand year,
Our fathers' title runs. Make we likewise their sacrifice,
Defrauding not our sons.
CHAPTER HEADINGS BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA
'jpHEY killed a child to please the Gods
In earth's young penitence, And I have bled in that Babe's stead Because of innocence.
I bear the sins of sinful men
That have no sin of my own,
They drive me forth to Heaven's wrath
Unpastured and alone.
I am the meat of sacrifice,
The ransom of man's guilt,
For they give my life to the altar-knife
Wherever shrine is built.
The Goat.
Between the waving tufts of jungle-grass, Up from the river as the twilight falls, Across the dust-beclouded plain they pass On to the village walls.
Great is the sword and mighty is the pen, But over all the labouring ploughman's blade- For on its oxen and its husbandmen An Empire's strength is laid.
The Oxen.