Page:Rudyard Kipling - A diversity of creatures.djvu/250

238 'Blessed be the English and everything they own. Cursed be the Infidels that bow to wood and stone!' 'Amen,' quo' Jobson, 'but where I used to lie Was neither pew nor Gospelleer to save my brethren by:

'But a desert stretched and stricken, left and right, left and right, Where the piled mirages thicken under white-hot light— A skull beneath a sand-hill and a viper coiled inside— And a red wind out of Libya roaring: "Run and hide!

'Blessed be the English and all they make or do. Cursed be the Hereticks who doubt that this is true!' 'Amen,' quo' Jobson, 'but where I mean to die Is neither rule nor calliper to judge the matter by:

'But Himalaya heavenward-heading, sheer and vast, sheer and vast, In a million summits bedding on the last world's past; A certain sacred mountain where the scented cedars climb, And—the feet of my Beloved hurrying back through Time!'