THE BALLAD OF THE "BOLIVAR "

Seven men from all the world, back to Docks again, Rolling down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain:

Give the girls another drink 'fore we sign away— We that took the Bolivar out across the Bay!

We put out from Sunderland loaded down with rails; We put back to Sunderland 'cause our cargo

shifted;

We put out from Sunderland-met the winter gales

Seven days and seven nights to the Start we drifted. Racketing her rivets loose, smoke-stack white

as snow,

All the coals adrift adeck, half the rails below,
Leaking like a lobster-pot, steering like a

dray

Out we took the Bolivar, out across the Bay!

One by one the Lights came up, winked and let us

by;

Mile by mile we waddled on, coal and fo'c'sle short;

Met a blow that laid us down, heard a bulkhead fly;
Left the Wolf behind us with a two-foot list to port.
Trailing like a wounded duck, working out her
soul;

Clanging like a smithy-shop after every roll;
Just a funnel and a mast lurching through the

spray

So we threshed the Bolivar out across the

Bay!

'Felt her hog and felt her sag, betted when she'd break;

Wondered every time she raced if she'd stand the shock;

Heard the seas like drunken men pounding at her strake;

Hoped the Lord 'ud keep his thumb on the plummer-block.

Banged against the iron decks, bilges choked with coal;

Flayed and frozen foot and hand, sick of heart and soul;

Last we prayed she'd buck herself into Judgment Day

Hi! we cursed the Bolivar knocking round the Bay!

O her nose flung up to sky, groaning to be stillUp and down and back we went, never time for breath;

Then the money paid at Lloyd's caught her by the heel,

And the stars ran round and round dancin' at our death.

Aching for an hour's sleep, dozing off between; 'Heard the rotten rivets draw when she took it

green;

'Watched the compass chase its tail like a cat at play

That was on the Bolivar, south across the Bay.

Once we saw between the squalls, lyin' head to swell

Mad with work and weariness, wishin' they was weSome damned Liner's lights go by like a long hotel; Cheered her from the Bolivar swampin' in the sea.

Then a grayback cleared us out, then the skipper laughed;

"Boys, the wheel has gone to Hell-rig the winches aft!

Yoke the kicking rudder-head-get her under
way!"

So we steered her, pulley-haul, out across the
Bay!

Just a pack o' rotten plates puttied up with tar,
In we came, an' time enough, 'cross Bilbao Bar.
Overloaded, undermanned, meant to founder,

we

Euchred God Almighty's storm, bluffed the
Eternal Sea!

Seven men from all the world, back to town again, Rollin' down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain:

Seven men from out of Hell. Ain't the owners gay, 'Cause we took the "Bolivar" safe across the Bay?

THE SACRIFICE OF ER-HEB

Er-Heb beyond the Hills of Ao-Safai
Bears witness to the truth, and Ao-Safai
Hath told the men of Gorukh.

Thence the tale

Comes westward o'er the peaks to India.

The story of Bisesa, Armod's child,-
A maiden plighted to the Chief in War,
The Man of Sixty Spears, who held the Pass
That leads to Thibet, but to-day is gone
To seek his comfort of the God called Budh
The Silent-showing how the Sickness ceased
Because of her who died to save the tribe.

Taman is One and greater than us all,
Taman is One and greater than all Gods:
Taman is Two in One and rides the sky,
Curved like a stallion's croup, from dusk to dawn,
And drums upon it with his heels, whereby
Is bred the neighing thunder in the hills.

This is Taman, the God of all Er-Heb,
Who was before all Gods, and made all Gods,