Intro:
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Narrator:
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Pillary stocks at the gallows tree dock
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the crowd grew impatient as the clouds threatened rain
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Elephant arrived at the Constable's side,
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with her trunk locked in shackles, and her ankles in chains
Bailiff:
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"All rise, all rise, his Honor presides,"
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the Judge took the bench to the village brass cavalcade,
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Elephant refused to swear the oath, said
Elephant:
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"I don't know anything about truth,
A E
but I know falsehood when I see it,
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and it looks like this whole world you've made"
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Good of our chaplain to sail Kalispell Bay
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And now down on his marrows for this old fool to pray,
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"Lord, for sixty-some years I've surrendered my love,
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to emblems of kindness, and not the kindness they were emblems of,
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Trammels and rings, with the strength of old strings,
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and some hobble skirt spring, by the old problem caught,
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Children, sometimes I think all our thoughts are just things,
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and then sometimes think things are just thoughts,"
E
and the rabble rang
Crowd:
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"Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!
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Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!"
Elephant:
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"A thirteen coil knot for the samovar pot!
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Scottish Oatcakes in haversacks each to its grave
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This mock trial can no more determine my lot,
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than can driftwood determine the ocean's waves,
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Brandish your ropes and your boards, and your basket-hilt swords,
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but what is there can punish like a conscience ignored?
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Yes, my body did just as you implied,
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while some ghost we'll call 'I' idly watched through its eyes,"
E
and the jury sang,
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"Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!
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Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!
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Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!
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Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!"
Elephant:
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I feel it stealing now
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I feel it stealing now
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I feel it stealing now
Bm
All adrift fathoms down