Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/436

 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 are set in the head, And the voice from the belly begins. Therefore, We pay them a wage where they ply at Endor.

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 their 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 En-dor! ''

HEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride, He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside. But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail. For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man, He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.