Страница - 165Страница - 167- The maiden cut her grandpa up in little tiny bits,
- And scared her grandma so she died in epileptic fits.
- The dry nurse with the clothes-line was serenely strangled, while
- They tossed the little baby to the sacred crocodile.

- And when the fuss was over, said the maiden to the Thug:
- "You'd better have a hole within the cemetery dug;
- And let the undertaker take extraordinary pains
- To decently inter this lot of mangled-up remains."
- And when the usual bitter tears were at the funeral shed,
- The lovers to the temple went, in order to be wed.
- The priest had barbecued a man that day for sacrifice;
- They cooked him with the cracklin' on; with gravy brown and nice.
- The chief priest asked the maiden, when the services began,
- If her papa had said she might annex this fine young man?
- "Oh no," she said, "my loving wish he foolishly withstood,
- So him and all the family we slaughtered in cold blood."
- "You shock me!" said the pious priest; "your conduct makes me sad;
- You never learned at Sunday-school to be so awful bad.
- I've told you often, when you killed a person anywhere,
- To bring the body to that old nine-headed idol there;
- "The great Vishnu is suffering for victims every day,
- And here you go and cut them up and throw the bones away!
- Extravagance is sinful; I must really put it down;
- I've half a mind to pull the string and make the idol frown.
- "I must punish you with rigor; and I order that you two
- Instead of getting married shall severest penance do."
- So on a piece of paper then he scribbled a brief word;
- The lovers as they left, of course, felt perfectly absurd.
- The Thug then read the order o'er, and bursting into tears,
- He said, "This paper realizes my unpleasant fears.
- Upon my word, my sweetest one, it really chills my blood;
- I've got to suffocate you in the Ganges' holy mud."
- And so he sadly led her down unto the river's bank,
- And like a stone into the cold, religious slime she sank.
- And there she stuck the livelong day, and all the following night.
- Until an alligator came and ate her at a bite.