Cholera Camp - Bellowhead

We’ve the cholera in camp and it’s worse than forty fights

And we’re dying in the wilderness same as Israelites

It’s before us and behind us, we cannot get away

And the doctor’s just reported that we’ve ten more today

Oh, strike your camp and go — the bugle’s calling

The rains are falling

The dead are bushed and stoned to keep them safe below

The bands are doing all they can to cheer us

The chaplain’s gone and prayed to God to hear us

To hear us

Oh, Lord, for it’s the killing of us all

Since August, when it started, it’s been sticking to our tail

Though they’ve had us out by marches

And they’ve had us back by rail

But it runs as fast as troop-trains and we cannot get away

And the sick list to the Colonel makes ten more today

And there ain’t no fun in women

And there ain’t no bite to drink

It’s much too wet for shooting

We can only march and think

And at evening, down the nullahs, we can hear the jackals say

«Get up, you rotten beggars, you’ve got ten more today!»

Oh, strike your camp and go — the bugle’s calling

The rains are falling

The dead are bushed and stoned to keep them safe below

The bands are doing all they can to cheer us

The chaplain’s gone and prayed to God to hear us

To hear us

Oh, Lord, for it’s the killing of us all

And it would make a monkey cough to see our way of doing things

Lieutenants taking companies and captains taking wings

And Lances acting Sergeants — eight file to obey

Oh yes, there’s lots of quick promotion on ten deaths a day!

And our Colonel’s white and twitterly

And he gets no sleep or food

He just mucks about in hospital where nothing does no good

And he sends us heaps of comforts, all bought from his pay

But there aren’t much comfort handy on ten deaths a day

So strike your camp and go — the bugle’s calling

The rains are falling

The dead are bushed and stoned to keep them safe below

The bands are doing all they can to cheer us

The chaplain’s gone and prayed to God to hear us

To hear us

Oh, Lord, for it’s the killing of us all

And our chaplain he’s got a banjo and a skinny mule he rides

And the stuff he says and sings, oh Lord, it makes us split our sides

With his black coat-tails a-bobbin' to ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay

Oh, he’s the proper kind of padre for ten deaths a day

Oh, we’ve the cholera in camp

We’ve go it hot and sweet

And it ain’t no Christmas dinner

But it’s certain we must eat

And we’ve gone beyond the funkin'

'Cause we’ve found it doesn’t pay

And we’re rocking 'round the District on ten deaths a day

So strike your camp and go — the bugle’s calling

The rains are falling

The dead are bushed and stoned to keep them safe below

And them that do not like it they can lump it

And them that cannot stand it they can jump it

For we’ve got to die somewhere, someway, somehow

So we might as well begin to do it now!

So, Number One, let down the tent-pole slow

Knock out the pegs and hold the corners so

Fold up the flies, furl up the ropes, and stow

Oh, strike, oh strike your camp and go