[Editor: This poem by E. J. Brady was published in The Earthen Floor (1902).]
XXX.
The Hunter’s Greeting.
The Brood is in the Forest,
The Spawn beneath the Sea,
Fair-greeting, City Brother,
The Hunters give to thee.
Who knows the Mart and Temple,
He knoweth not the Trail:
The Spoor is script before us —
Waes heil! Waes heil! Waes heil!
The stars shine on the waters,
The sun burns o’er the plain,
The Hunters and the Fishers
Pack out, track out again.
Of fur and fin and feather,
Shall yet their knowledge be
Book-paged within the Forest,
Deep-written in the Sea.
Their love glows red as roses;
Your love lies lily-pale —
Waes Heil! Ye City Dwellers.
Waes heil! Waes heil! Waes heil!
Source:
E. J. Brady, The Earthen Floor, Grafton (N.S.W.): Grip Newspaper Co., 1902
Editor’s notes:
mart = market
o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)
waes heil = (Middle English) (also spelt as “waes hael”, “wassail”) “be in good health” (or “health be to you”, “to your health”), derived from an Anglo-Saxon greeting phrase
Old spelling in the original text:
knoweth (knows)
thee (you)
ye (you)
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