Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/82

64 They buried the boy by the river,

A blanket over his face—

They wept for their dead Lieutenant,

The men of an alien race—

They made a samadh in his honour,

A mark for his resting-place.

For they swore by the Holy Water,

They swore by the salt they ate,

That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib

Should go to his God in state;

With fifty file of Burman

To open him Heaven's gate.

The men of the First Shikaris

Marched till the break of day,

Till they came to the rebel village,

The village of Pabengmay—

A jingal covered the clearing,

Calthrops hampered the way.

Subadar Prag Tewarri,

Bidding them load with ball,

Halted a dozen rifles

Under the village wall;

Sent out a flanking-party

With Jemadar Hira Lal.

The men of the First Shikaris

Shouted and smote and slew,

Turning the grinning jingal

On to the howling crew.

The Jemadar's flanking-party

Butchered the folk who flew.