Chilly Jack was a rambling man,
he could never settle down,
couldn't staunch the blood from his hands,
slipped off the merry-go-round.
He tried his best to climb back on
but it was spinning much too fast
and when finally, exhausted, he turned away
he met a woman called first and last.

She was wearing a crown of thistle
desert flowers blooming through the thorns,
with a belt of closely woven corn husks,
and a spiralling bone-shell horn.

"You look like you've fallen out", she said,
"so you'd better come with me,
people call me most anything
but you can call me Eumenides.”

She gave him an olive branch
whose stem had thorns
and a suckling lamb
whose head had horns.
"The olive branch is what you'll bring,
and the thorns will keep it from being eaten.
The lamb's your offering,
and the horns'll stick it all the way in.
And here's a guitar
instead of a gun,
and here's a voice,
you better start singing.
Singing la ilaha illallah, la ilaha illallah, la ilaha illallah...


Chilly Jack:
"But I ain’t no singer,
and my fingers are frayed,
I couldn't do what you asked
even if I began to pray."

Eumenides:
"You did pray, you fool,
when you were brash and young,
now you reap what you sow
here's the rewards that you've won."

Chilly Jack:
"Who am I to take your offering,
and who am I to stick it in,
who am I to carry an olive branch
when my hearts so full of hating."

Eumenides:
"Well you slipped off the merry-go-round
broken open on the ground
and where you fell apart
we slipped in
to melt your hardened heart,
and where you fell apart
we slipped in
to melt your hardened heart,
Singing la ilaha illallah, la ilaha illallah, la ilaha illallah..."

1. The Eumenides (aka Erinyes + Furies) were Greek/Roman "female, chthonic deities of vengeance or supernatural personifications of the anger of the dead. They represent regeneration and the potency of creation, which both consumes and empowers..
When Cronus cut his father, Uranus', nuts off and threw them into the sea (very bad boy, very very bad boy!) the Furies were born from the blood. And they were not happy.
In general they chase people down seeking Justice, and are particularily energetic with people who murder their mothers.
They were quite busy in early Greece and Rome.
We miss them.

2. la ilaha illallah - there is no god but God