| |
| | ARGUMENT.—The Indian Government being minded to discover the economic condition of their lands, sent a Committee to inquire into it; and saw that it was good. |
| |
| SCENE.—The wooded heights of Simla. The Incarnation of the Government of India in the raiment of the Angel of Plenty sings, to pianoforte accompaniment:— |
“HOW sweet is the shepherd’s sweet life! | |
| From the dawn to the even he strays— | |
| He shall follow his sheep all the day | |
| And his tongue shall be fillèd with praise. | |
| (adagio dim.) Fillèd with praise!” | 5 |
| |
| (largendo con sp.) Now this is the position, | |
| Go make an inquisition | |
| Into their real condition | |
| As swiftly as ye may. | |
| (p) Ay, paint our swarthy billions | 10 |
| The richest of vermillions | |
| Ere two well-led cotillions | |
| Have danced themselves away. | |
| |
TURKISH PATROL, as able and intelligent Investigators wind down the Himalayas:—
What is the state of the Nation? What is its occupation? | |
| Hi! get along, get along, get along—lend us the information! | 15 |
| |
| (dim) Census the byle 1 and the yabu—capture a first-class Babu, | |
Set him to file Gazetteers—Gazetteers …
(ff) What is the state of the Nation, etc., etc. | |
| |
INTERLUDE, from Nowhere in Particular, to stringed and Oriental instruments.
Our cattle reel beneath the yoke they bear— | |
| The earth is iron and the skies are brass— | |
| And faint with fervour of the flaming air | 20 |
| The languid hours pass. | |
| |
| The well is dry beneath the village tree— | |
| The young wheat withers ere it reach a span, | |
| And belts of blinding sand show cruelly | |
| Where once the river ran. | 25 |
| |
| Pray, brothers, pray, but to no earthly King— | |
| Lift up your hands above the blighted grain, | |
| Look westward—if they please, the Gods shall bring | |
| Their mercy with the rain. | |
| |
| Look westward—bears the blue no brown cloud-bank? | 30 |
| Nay, it is written—wherefore should we fly? | |
| On our own field and by our cattle’s flank | |
| Lie down, lie down to die! | |
| |
SEMI-CHORUS By the plumed heads of Kings | |
| Waving high, | 35 |
| Where the tall corn springs | |
| O’er the dead. | |
| If they rust or rot we die, | |
| If they ripen we are fed. | |
| Very mighty is the power of our Kings! | 40 |
| |
Triumphal return to Simla of the Investigators, attired after the manner of Dionysus, leading a pet tiger-cub in wreaths of rhubarb-leaves, symbolical of India under medical treatment. They sing:—
We have seen, we have written—behold it, the proof of our manifold toil! | |
| In their hosts they assembled and told it—the tale of the Sons of the Soil. | |
| We have said of the Sickness—“Where is it?”—and of Death—“It is far from our ken,”— | |
| We have paid a particular visit to the affluent children of men. | |
| We have trodden the mart and the well-curb—we have stooped to the bield and the byre; | 45 |
| And the King may the forces of Hell curb for the People have all they desire! | |
| |
Castanets and step-dance:—
Oh, the dom 2 and the mag and the thakur and the thag, | |
| And the nat and the brinjaree, | |
| And the bunnia and the ryot are as happy and as quiet | |
| And as plump as they can be! | 50 |
| Yes, the jain and the jat in his stucco-fronted hut, | |
| And the bounding bazugar, | |
| By the favour of the King, are as fat as anything, | |
| They are—they are—they are! | |
| |
RECITATIVE, Government of India, with white satin wings and electro-plated harp:—
How beautiful upon the Mountains—in peace reclining, | 55 |
| Thus to be assured that our people are unanimously dining. | |
| And though there are places not so blessed as others in natural advantages, which, after all, was only to be expected, | |
| Proud and glad are we to congratulate you upon the work you have thus ably effected. | |
| (Cres.) How be-ewtiful upon the Mountains! | |
| |
HIRED BAND, brasses only, full chorus:—
God bless the Squire | 60 |
| And all his rich relations | |
| Who teach us poor people | |
| We eat our proper rations— | |
| We eat our proper rations, | |
| In spite of inundations, | 65 |
| Malarial exhalations, | |
| And casual starvations, | |
| We have, we have, they say we have— | |
| We have our proper rations! | |
| |
CHORUS OF THE CRYSTALLISED FACTS
Before the beginning of years | 70 |
| There came to the rule of the State | |
| Men with a pair of shears, | |
| Men with an Estimate— | |
| Strachey with Muir for leaven, | |
| Lytton with locks that fell, | 75 |
| Ripon fooling with Heaven, | |
| And Temple riding like H—ll! | |
| And the bigots took in hand | |
| Cess and the falling of rain, | |
| And the measure of sifted sand | 80 |
| The dealer puts in the grain— | |
| Imports by land and sea, | |
| To uttermost decimal worth, | |
| And registration—free— | |
| In the houses of death and of birth. | 85 |
| And fashioned with pens and paper, | |
| And fashioned in black and white, | |
| With Life for a flickering taper | |
| And Death for a blazing light— | |
| With the Armed and the Civil Power, | 90 |
| That his strength might endure for a span— | |
| From Adam’s Bridge to Peshawur, | |
| The Much Administered Man. | |
| |
| In the towns of the North and the East, | |
| They gathered as unto rule, | 95 |
| They bade him starve his priest | |
| And send his children to school. | |
| Railways and roads they wrought, | |
| For the needs of the soil within; | |
| A time to squabble in court, | 100 |
| A time to bear and to grin. | |
| And gave him peace in his ways, | |
| Jails—and Police to fight, | |
| Justice—at length of days, | |
| And Right—and Might in the Right. | 105 |
| His speech is of mortgaged bedding, | |
| On his kine he borrows yet, | |
| At his heart is his daughter’s wedding, | |
| In his eye foreknowledge of debt. | |
| He eats and hath indigestion, | 110 |
| He toils and he may not stop; | |
| His life is a long-drawn question | |
| Between a crop and a crop. | |
