EMERALD ROSE: SONG LYRICS
all lyrics (c) Emerald Rose 1998-2004 except where noted

The Pict Song

In 1906 Rudyard Kipling published a wonderful volume of British
mythological and semi-historical stories, Puck of Pook's Hill.  The book is
populated by fairy folk, legendary heroes, Roman centurions, Nordic raiders .
. . and Picts.  (The  Picts, by the way, were "the first British nation to emerge
from the tribal societies of the late Iron Age....   From the fourth to the ninth
century, they flourished and were the dominant power in the north.  Then in
what seems ... a remarkably short period of time, the Picts as a nation simply
ceased to exist.  Their language went out of use and is now almost
completely lost, and their place was taken by the burgeoning Scottish nation,
which had started life in the west as a small colony of settlers from Ireland."  
--W. A. Cummings, The Age of the Picts, Alan Sutton Publishing, 1995.)

This one is for James and Felicia, who said they wouldn't buy the CD unless
"A Pict Song" was on it.  Be careful what you ask for!
                           

A PICT SONG
(words by Rudyard Kipling, music by Leslie Fish)

Rome never looks where she treads.
  Always her heavy hooves fall
On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;
  And Rome never heeds when we bawl.
Her sentries pass on--that is all,
   And we gather behind them in hordes,
And plot to reconquer the Wall,
   With only our tongues for our swords.

Chorus:
We are the Little Folk--we!
   Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
   How we can drag down the State!
We are the worm in the wood!
  We are the rot at the root!
We are the taint in the blood!
   We are the thorn in the foot!

Mistletoe  killing  an  oak--
  Rats gnawing cables in two--
Moths making holes in a cloak--
  How they must love what they do!
Yes--and we Little Folk too,
  We are busy as they--
Working our works out of view--
  Watch, and you'll see it some day!

Chorus

No indeed! We are not strong,
  But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and we'll guide them along
  To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same?
  Yes, we have always been slaves,
But you--you will die of the shame,
  And then we shall dance on your graves!

Chorus

Brian "Logan" Sullivan--vocals
Larry Morris--pennywhistle, vocals
Arthur Hinds--bodhran, vocals
Clyde Gilbert--vocals