AUTHOR'S NOTE

Nearly all the verses that now make their first appearance in book form are reprinted from Punch, by kind permission of Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew. The rest I have taken from two little books that were published in Bombay during my last (and, I suppose, final) tour of service in India. They contained a good deal of work that was too local or topical in interest to stand reproduction, and—especially the elder, which is out of print—some that I would sooner bury than perpetuate. The rest I have overhauled, and included in this re-collection.

Readers in, or of, India have been kind enough to regard my previous efforts with favour. I hope that this little volume will find them no less benevolently disposed, and that at the same time it may not be without interest to those whose knowledge of the Shiny East is derived from hearsay.

NOCTURNE WRITTEN IN AN INDIAN GARDEN

[1] The dunder-stick—an ingenious instrument devised to defeat this extraordinary appetite.[2]

THE MORAL

[5]

TO HIS PECULIAR FRIEND WITHIN-DOORS

After R. H.

[6]

VALEDICTION

TO THE SS. 'ARABIA,' WHEN RETURNING WITH HER PASSENGERS FROM THE DELHI DURBAR

[8]

A SOLDIER OF WEIGHT

(An interval of about three years.)[11]

[12]

ODE TO THE TIME-GUN OF GURRUMBAD

[Time-guns are of invariable pattern and extreme antiquity. Other species come and go; their ancestor remains always. One is to be found in each cantonment: he generally occupies a position of unsheltered and pathetic loneliness in a corner of the local parade-ground. The writer has never seen one herded in the Gun-park with his kind.]

[15]

OMAR OUT OF DATE

BY A RENEGADE DISCIPLE

[18]

[19]

ODE

ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF EVER GETTING TO THE HILLS

After T. G.

[22]

A SOMBRE RETROSPECT

[24]

TO MANDALAY—GREETING

(BY WALTYARD WHIPMING)

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

[27]