"The Burden of Nineveh"  by Rudyard Kipling  Small parsons crimp
their eyes to gaze, And misses titter in their stays Just fresh
from Layard's "Nineveh".  The Burden of Nineveh. notes on the
text  [June 6th 1888]  It was the Patient East, but not quite as
Arnold has painted her. She was thinking, it is true, but there
was no dignity in her attire. In the first place, they had given
her a beautiful British check-pattern shawl to hide the
shoulders that had driven mad Alexander and one or two other
gentlemen with armies and aspirations. In the second, they had
put a mortar-board atilt on her dark hair, but through some
little error it was hind-side before, and the deep part was
scratching her nose. There was a bundle of Educational Primers
at her feet, and the Tiger, which she used to hold in a golden
leash, was sitting on his hind legs snapping at flies.
Altogether, the Patient East did not look her best.  "It's
curious," she thought; and she pinched the beautiful British
check-pattern shawl. "It's very curiou