10000 Maniacs - The Colonial Wing Lyrics
[ music: robert buck/lyric: natalie merchant ]Here is the store house of her majestyWell guarded by sentryBut looks are freeCall this the rayless and benighted ageWitches by tallow candles shiftedShifted their shapesHere is the pestle and mortarThat ground the poison seedA lute, a suit for joustingAnd the poems of a balladeerWhen all the latin books were copied offIn golden scriptWell hoarded away inA monastery cryptSuperstitionSuperstition beyond beliefOver mountain, over dune and over seaCrude map and compass lead the caravanAnd lead the fleetHeres the loot and plunderThey bore homeIvory tusk inlaid with precious stoneRaw silk and spices by the barrel loadA soft skin drum with malletsOf human boneA world wide rampageRampage of greedSo here the tour concludesThe colonial wingThe rooms of the most refinedMuseum propertyAn early pair of spectaclesA claw footed divanOrnate clocks with birds that strutOn the half hours and quarter hoursHear them chime
