bn_songbook | The Messenger

A archaeological riddle song.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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/ A2 G FG A2 / / A2 - F G / A2G FG FG A2 /

All for to be their messenger, they've flayed away his hide

And made the black blood run in lines upon his naked side

All for to be their messenger, and go where he is sent

A faithful page, of a brazen age, so into the night he went

But now a storm's come out of the East, and he's been long waylaid

And at long last the village priest has found him where he's strayed

And the priest he's brought him from the dust and out into the air

To be seen again in the sight of men, his message still to bear

But now the priest he's turned him o'er to a strange and awful fate

For the judge he's said he were better dead, for his message came too late

But if he'll but repent his crime, new words and true they'll give

So they've scraped his skin clean off again, and said they'll let him live

Now once again the black blood's flowed, and he's been sent away

And been waylaid upon his road, and lost to the light of day

Again his message comes too late, and not to where it ought

Two charges now he's borne astray, and the first he's clean forgot

Now kinder men have healed his hurts, for he'd been wounded sore

And they've shone a strange light on him, and he's told them all, and more

For all that time and torture tried and treated him their worst

He's borne each tale true to his end, both the second and the first

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