The Walrus above referred to a song he called "The Middle East Lament," but the first line he quoted is nearly like this one:

Lyrics copied from More Tommy's Tunes by F. T. Nettleinghame (London: Erskine Macdonald, Ltd., 1918), page 26:


THE BOYS IN PALESTINE
Tune: "From Greenland's Icy Mountains."

(The following verses were sent by some of the boys, from Richmond and district, who were then fighting in Palestine.)

We came from Turkey's mountains,
    To Egypt's blazing strand,
Where Afric's sunny fountains
    Are mostly choked with sand.
We've seen its ancient river.
    We've seen its palmy plain.
Our greatest hope is never
    To see the place again.

We've climbed up both the pyramids.
    We've fished in the canal.
If we haven't got the sunstroke,
    No doubt in time we shall.
They've placed us near to Suez.
    Our heads are fit to burst,
And we quite agree with Kipling
    That a man can raise a thirst.

We've felt those gentle showers
    Whose very rain is sand.
We've seen, like Joseph's brethren,
    The bareness of the land.
We've tried the plagues of Egypt.
    We've known the flies and lice,
And we sympathise with Pharaoh,
    Who hadn't any ice.

What though the spicy breezes
    Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle,
They ain't much good to us blokes
    Who sweat beside the Nile.
In vain with lavish kindness
    They issue Tickler's jam.
We're blinking with sun-blindness
    And no one cares a damn.

From Sidi Bishr to Kubri,
    From Suez to El Shatt,
There's nothing here but niggers,
    Each blacker than your hat.
The sun has scorched our noses,
    And our idea of bliss
Is for another Moses
    To take us out of this. Amen.


[For the tune, see Franklin Square Song Collection, No. 2 by J. P. McCaskey (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1884), page 115.