The Ballad of East and West

When wolf and grey wolf meet …

The first Afghan I have ever met was a middle-aged horse thief named Kamal, and it was Rudyard Kipling who made the introduction. Much later I was privileged to have several Afghan friends, and I can attest that they were men “you would want to go stealing horses with” – in other words, the kind you could trust your life to. In Afghanistan, very intimate ties between men are the cultural norm (probably because a man’s very survival depends upon having trustworthy friends, and because Afghan women are so secluded). Kipling never visited Afghanistan yet he heard enough about Afghanistan from his military friends to capture the spirit of the country, which he rendered in ‘The Ballad of East and West’, ‘The Ballad of the King’s Jest’ and several other poems.

The British fought three major wars against the Afghans – and the Afghans prevailed, as they did in the 1980s against the Russians. In these wars and in countless clashes along India’s North-West Frontier, the British learned to admire the Afghans’ fighting spirit and their camaraderie among men.

This is what makes the ballad so believable. Kamal steals the Colonel’s prize mare, and the Colonel’s son takes after him in hot pursuit into his own lair – up the Tongue of Jagai, “that grisly plain … sown with Kamal’s men”. After he is predictably overpowered by Kamal, he stakes his life on a wager. He warns Kamal that if he is killed, a reprisal expedition would come to avenge his death, and perhaps “the price of a jackal’s meal were more than a thief could pay”; but adds that if Kamal gives him his father’s mare again, he would fight his own way back, and Kamal would be absolved of responsibility for his certain death in combat against such odds. Kamal is so impressed by his courage that he decides he would rather have the Colonel’s son as a living friend than as a dead enemy; and that his own son would have a better future as a commander in the Border Guides under the tutelage of this man, than as a horse thief like himself. He celebrates blood brotherhood with his former enemy, showers him with gifts, entrusts him with his only son, and those two ride off together into the dawn. This “Eastern” is, if you will, the ultimate Western. One can readily understand why its publication catapulted Kipling into the first rank of contemporary writers, and why it remains one of his best-known poems. It harks back in both subject and style to the Scottish Border Ballads.

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border-side,
And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride.
He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and the day,
And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away.⁽¹⁾

Then up and spoke the Colonel's son that led a troop of the Guides:
"Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?"
Then up and spoke Mohammed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar: ⁽²⁾
"If ye know the way of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are.

"At dusk he harries the Abazai - at dawn he is into Bonair,
"But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare.
"So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly,
"By the favour of God ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai. ⁽³⁾

"But if he be past the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then,
"For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal's men.
"There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,
"And ye might hear a breech-bolt snick where never a man is seen."

The Colonel's son has taken horse, and a raw rough dun was he,
With the mouth of a bell and the heart of Hell and the head of a gallows-tree.
The Colonel's son to the fort has won, they bid him stay to eat -
Who rides at the tail of a Border thief, he sits not long at his meat.

He's up and away from Fort Bukloh as fast as he can fly,
Till he was aware of his father's mare in the gut of the Tongue of Jagai,
Till he was aware of his father's mare with Kamal upon her back,
And when he could spy the white of her eye, he made the pistol crack.

He has fired once, he has fired twice, but the whistling ball went wide.
"Ye shoot like a soldier", Kamal said. "Show now if ye can ride!"
It's up and over the Tongue of Jagai, as blown dust-devils go,
The dun he fled like a stag of ten, but the mare like a barren doe.

The dun he leaned against the bit and slugged his head above,
But the red mare played with the snaffle-bars, as a maiden plays with a glove. ⁽⁴⁾
There was rock to the left and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,
And thrice he heard a breech-bolt snick tho' never a man was seen.

They have ridden the low moon out of the sky, their hoofs drum up the dawn,
The dun he went like a wounded bull, but the mare like a new-roused fawn.
The dun he fell at a water-course - in a woeful heap fell he,
And Kamal has turned the red mare back, and pulled the rider free.

He has knocked the pistol out of his hand - small room was there to strive,
"'Twas only by favour of mine," quoth he, "ye rode so long alive:
"There was not a rock for twenty mile, there was not a clump of tree,
"But covered a man of my own men with his rifle cocked on his knee.

"If I had lifted my bridle-hand, as I have held it low,
"The little jackals that flee so fast were feasting all in a row.⁽⁵⁾
"If I had bowed my head on my breast, as I have held it high,
"The kite that whistles above us now were gorged till she could not fly."

Lightly answered the Colonel's son: "Do good to bird and beast,
"But count who come to the broken meats before thou maketh a feast.
"If there should follow a thousand swords to carry my bones away,
"Belike the price of a jackal's meal were more than a thief could pay. ⁽⁶⁾

"They will feed their horse on the standing crop, their men on the garnered grain.
"The thatch of the byres will serve their fires when all the cattle are slain. ⁽⁷⁾
"But if thou thinkest the price be fair, - thy brethren wait to sup,
"The hound is kin to the jackal-spawn, - howl, dog, and call them up!

"And if thou thinkest the price be high, in steer and gear and stack,
"Give me my father's mare again, and I'll fight my own way back!"
Kamal has gripped him by the hand and set him upon his feet.
"No talk shall be of dogs," said he, "when wolf and grey wolf meet.

"May I eat dirt if thou hast hurt of me in deed or breath;
"What dam of lances brought thee forth to jest at the dawn with Death?" ⁽⁸⁾
Lightly answered the Colonel's son: "I hold by the blood of my clan:
"Take up the mare for my father's gift - by God, she has carried a man!"

The red mare ran to the Colonel's son, and nuzzled against his breast;
"We be two strong men," said Kamal then, "but she loveth the younger best.
"So she shall go with a lifter's dower, my turquoise-studded rein,
"My 'broidered saddle and saddle-cloth, and silver stirrups twain."

The Colonel's son a pistol drew, and held it muzzle-end,
"Ye have taken one from a foe," said he. "Will ye take the mate from a friend?"
"A gift for a gift," said Kamal straight; "a limb for the risk of a limb.
"Thy father has sent his son to me, I'll send my son to him!"

With that he whistled his only son, that dropped from a mountain-crest
He trod the ling like a buck in spring, and he looked like a lance in rest. ⁽⁹⁾
"Now here is thy master," Kamal said, "who leads a troop of the Guides,
"And thou must ride at his left side as shield on shoulder rides.

"Till death or I cut loose the tie, at camp and board and bed,
"Thy life is his - thy fate it is to guard him with thy head.
"So, thou must eat the White Queen's meat, and all her foes are thine,
"And thou must harry thy father's hold for the peace of the Border-line.

"And thou must make a trooper tough and hack thy way to power -
"Belike they'll raise thee to Ressaldar when I am hanged in Peshawur!"

They have looked each other between the eyes, and there they found no fault.
They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on leavened bread and salt:
They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on fire and fresh-cut sod,
On the hilt and the haft of the Khyber knife, and the Wondrous Names of God.

The Colonel's son he rides the mare and Kamal's boy the dun,
And two have come back to Fort Bukloh where there went forth but one.
And when they drew to the Quarter-Guard, full twenty swords flew clear
There was not a man but carried his feud with the blood of the mountaineer.

"Ha' done! Ha' done!" said the Colonel's son. "Put up the steel at your sides!
"Last night ye had struck at a Border thief - to-night 'tis a man of the Guides!"

Notes

[1] ‘Calkins’ – pointed extensions on the horseshoes, to prevent slipping. Kamal reversed them to make the tracks look as if the mare was running in the opposite direction.

[2] Commander of a troop of Indian cavalry.

[3] The place names situate the events of the poem probably near the present Pakistan-Afghan border some 30 km north of the Khyber Pass.

[4] ‘Snaffle bars’ – the bars at the sides of the bit in the horse’s mouth.

[5] i.e. the jackals would be feasting in a line slong the Colonel son’s dead body.

[6] ‘Belike’ – perhaps.

[7] ‘Byres’ – cowsheds.

[8] ‘Dam of lances’ – the Queen of Spades, believed to bring ill luck.

[9] ‘Ling’ – heather.