Classic Poem

THE GODS OF EGYPT .

L ANGSYNE in Egypt beasts were gods;
Sae mony, that the men turn'd beasts;
Vermin and brutes but house or hald,
Had offerings, temples, and their priests.

Ae day a Rattan, white as milk,
At a cat's shrine was sacrific'd,
And pompous on the altar bled:
The victim much god Badrans pleas'd.

The neist day was god Rattan's tour;
And that he might propitious smile,
A Cat is to his temple brought,
Priests singing round him a' the while

Odes, anthems, hymns, in verse and prose,
With instruments of solemn sound,
Praying the lang-tail'd deity
To bless their faulds and furrow'd ground.

" O! plague us not with cats, " they cry'd,
" For this we cut ane's throat to thee. " —
" A bonny god indeed! " quoth Puss;
" Can ye believe sae great a lie?

" What am I then that eat your god?
" And yesterday to me ye bow'd;
" This day I 'm to that vermin offer'd:
" God save us! ye 're a senseless crowd. "

The close reflection gart them glowr,
And shook their thoughts haf out of joint;
But rather than be fash'd with thought,
They gart the ax decide the point.

Thus we 're Egyptians ane and a';
Our passions gods, that gar us swither;
Which, just as the occasion serves,
We sacrifice to ane anither.