Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/110

96 Which is the better portion—bondage bought with a ring,

Or a harem of dusky beauties fifty tied in a string?

Counsellors cunning and silent—comforters true and tried,

And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride.

Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,

Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eye-lids close.

This will the fifty give me, asking naught in return,

With only a Suttee's passion—to do their duty and burn.

This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,

Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.

The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,

When they hear my harem is empty, will send me my brides again.