May Satan, with a rusty crook
Catch every goat in Tallarook;
May Mrs Melton's latest spook
Haunt all old maids in Tallarook;
May China's oldest pig-tailed cook
Spoil chops and steaks in Tallarook;
May all the frogs in Doogalook
Sing every night in Tallarook;
May Reedy Creek create a brook
To swamp the flats in Tallarook;
May rabbits ever find a nook
To breed apace in Tallarook;
May Sin Ye Sun and Sam Ah Fook
Steal all the fowls in Tallarook;
May Ikey Moses make a book
To stiffen sport in Tallarook;
May sirens fair as Lalla Rook
Tempt all old men in Tallarook;
May every paddock yield a shook
Of smutty wheat in Tallarook;
May good St Peter overlook
The good deeds done in Tallarook;
May each Don Juan who forsook
His sweetheart live in Tallarook;
May all who Matthew's pledges took
Get rolling drunk in Tallarook;
May every pigeon breed a rook
To spoil the crops in Tallarook;
May I get ague, gout and fluke
If I drink rum in Tallarook.
Notes
Titled McQuade's Curse this composition was published in Russel Ward's "Penguin Book of Australian Ballads" (1964) with this note:
McQuade's Curse was collected in 1962 though it almost certainly has an ancient folk-lineage. The Curse was pinned to the railway gates in the Victorian town of Tallarook, by a swagman who had been refused a drink of rum on credit at one of the towns hotels. Lalla Rookh was the name of an immensely popular verse-romance by Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), and Father Matthew was a celebrated Irish temperance advocate of the same period.
Meredith and Whalan attribute it to Francis MacNamara for reasons of style and because it is a 'parody of The Donerelle Litany'.
