Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/105

 In one vast, roaring broadside, just as,

Thus welcomed by devotion’s busters

The host or lowly Nazarene—

A wooden effigy, bedecked

With star-flecked robes of blue and green,

Striped red, the climax of the scene

Swept, staggering o’er the crowd, erect

On four well-padded cruppers sturdy,

Preceded by a hurdy-gurdy

Grinding out waltzes from Waldteufel.

Next came the village band, a trifle

In drink, and a superb costume,

But struggling bravely—boum! boum! boum!

With Sullivan’s Mikado blended

With reminiscences of Verdi.

More in the middle tramp in sight

A file of priests in blue and white-

Lace tippets and red skull-caps tight,

Decanting forth from lungs stentorian

A chant, half-Afric, half-Gregorian,

By a long line of choir-boys followed

In crimson cassocks and white collared

Who, with shrill trebles, intertwined

A tarantella, while behind

The street boys crossed themselves and hollo’d

In different keys, and every angle

Rang with applause and crowned the jangle—

A mode of doing one’s devotions

Not consonant with northern notions;

Most efficacious, though, to tether

The flock of Church in southern weather

And keep its rambling sheep together: