PENTECOST 
25
Still you’re young yet, scarce forty—we’ll hope at three score 
You’ll be more of a singer, and less of a whore. 
 
Each to his trade ! live out your life ! 
Fondle your child, and buss your wife ! 
Trust not, fear not, street straight and strong ! 
Don’t worry, but just get along. 
I used to envy all my Balti coolies21 
In an inverse kind of religious hysteria, 
Though every one a perfect fool is, 
To judge by philosophic criteria, 
My Lord Archbishop.  The name of Winchester, 
Harrow, or Eton22 makes them not two inches stir. 125 
They know not Trinity, Merton, or Christchurch ; 
They worshi p, but  not  at  y our back-pews-hi gh-priced 
Church. 
I’ve seen them at twenty thousand feet 
On the ice, in a snow-storm, at night fall, repeat 
Their prayer23—will your Grace do as much for your Three 
As they do for their One ?  I have seen—may you see ! 
They sleep and know not what a mat is ; 
Seem to enjoy their cold chapaties ;* 
Are healthy, strong—and some are old. 
They do not care a damn24 for cold, 
Behave like children, trust in Allah ; 
(Flies in Mohammed’s spider-parlour !) 
They may not think : at least they dare 
Live out their lives, and little care 
Worries their souls—worse fools they seem 
Than even Christians.  Do I dream ? 
Probing philosophy to marrow, 
What thought darts in its poisoned arrow 
But this ? (my wisdom, even to me, 
Seems folly) may their folly be 
True Wisdom ?  O esteemed Tahuti !25 
You are, you are, you are a beauty ! 
If after all these years of worship 
You hail Ra26 his bark or Nuit27 her ship 
* A flat cake of unleavened bread.  As  a m atter of fact they  do not  
enjoy and indeed will not eat them, preferring “dok,” a paste of coarse  
flour and water, wrapped round a hot 
stone.  It cooks gradually , and  
remains warm all day. 
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Live out thy  
life !  Charac- 
ter of Balti.   
His religious 
sincerity.  Re-
lations of poet 
and the Egyp-
tian God of 
Wisdom. 
Crowley dis-
missed with a 
jest.