StoryTitle("caps", "Shiv and the Grasshopper ") ?>
smallcaps("(The song that Toomai's mother sang to the baby)")?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the King upon the guddee to the Beggar at the gate.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " All things made he—Shiva the Preserver.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " Mahadeo! Mahadeo! He made all,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Cattle to the tiger, carrion to the kite,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Naught he found too lofty, none he saw too low—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Parbati beside him watched them come and go;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thought to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Stole the little grasshopper and hid it in her breast.", "") ?>
PagePoem(261, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "So she tricked him, Shiva the Preserver.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " Mahadeo! Mahadeo! Turn and see.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " Tall are the camels, heavy are the kine,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " But this was Least of Little Things, O little son of mine!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When the dole was ended, laughingly she said,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Master, of a million mouths, is not one unfed?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Laughing, Shiv made answer, \"All have had their part,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Even he, the little one, hidden 'neath thy heart.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From her breast she plucked it, Parbati the thief,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Saw the Least of Little Things gnawed a new-grown leaf!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Saw and feared and wondered, making prayer to Shiv,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who hath surely given meat to all that live.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " All things made he—Shiva the Preserver.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " Mahadeo! Mahadeo! He made all,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", " And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>