A-sitting on a Tell

A-sitting on a Tell is a poem by Agatha Christie. It was published as a preface within her 1946 book Come, Tell Me How You Live about her experiences accompanying Max Mallowan on various archaeological expeditions.

The poem is a parody of "The White Knight's Song" found in chapter VIII of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. This poem is variously referred to as "Haddock's Eyes", or "The Aged Aged Man", "Ways and Means" or "A-sitting on a Gate". Christie follows the structure of Carroll's poem closely. Carroll's first stanza goes:

I'll tell thee everything I can:
 * There's little to relate.

I saw an aged aged man,
 * A-sitting on a gate.

"Who are you, aged man?" I said,
 * "And how is it you live?"

And his answer trickled through my head,
 * Like water through a sieve.

Christie adapts the poem, substituting the word "gate" for tell which can be used to describe an archaeological mound or site. In Carroll's case, the answer trickled through "Like water in a sieve". Christie's old man's answer trickled through "like bloodstains in a book". Perhaps Christie was referring to her crime novels.