[Tommy:]
Oh, if you please, I'm Rameses,
I'll take my oath of that!
[Rosa:]
And I'm his true Queen Hatasu,
The accent on the "hat"!
[Tommy:]
We lived in style beneath the Nile
And ruled the coast around;
[Rosa:]
And then we were put up in myrrh
At seven-and-nine the pound!
[Tommy:]
They wound us up in linen thus,
I'll show you how they did,
[Rosa:]
We slept in our sarcophagus
Inside a pyramid!
[Tommy:]
And now we're waken'd up again
In the nineteenth Century--
The Twentieth as some maintain,
But I don't care A. D.
[Rosa:]
We want to change our present dress
For a style that's modern and free,
Although it was a great success
Two thousand and odd B. C.
[Both:]
So round and round we got unwound
With a movement solemn and slow.
As suits a Queen and King that have been
Four thousand years ago!
Excuse us if our limbs are stiff,
For they were not formerly so;
Our joints would act when we were packed
Four thousand years ago!
[Rosa:]
I find it strange to see the change
In this Egyptian land,
[Tommy:]
The nations say that things today
No fellah can understand!
[Rosa:]
The English hold the land controll'd
And spend enormous sums.
[Tommy:]
In lordly style they dam the Nile
And anything else that comes.
[Rosa:]
In perfect swarms the tourists come
To ev'ry spot and nook;
[Tommy:]
Though Kitchener has gone with some
Yet more arrive with Cook!
[Rosa:]
With English ladies' ev'ning dress
I'm tolerably content,
Although you'll see us wearing less
Upon our monument!
[Tommy:]
But modern dances are a sport
That is not attractive to me,
We'll show you how we danced at Court
Two thousand and odd B. C.
[Both:]
So round and round we pace the ground
In a measure stately and slow,
We don't forget our Court etiquette
Four thousand years ago!
You note, perhaps, a trifling lapse,
But the cause is easy to know,
We had to stop our latest hop
Four thousand years ago!