Android: How to use the Html.TagHandler? - html

Question

I am trying to build an android application for a message board. To display formatted html for the post contents I have chosen the TextView and the Html.fromHtml() method. That, unfortunately, covers only a few html tags. The unknown tags are handled by a class that implements TagHandler and has to be generated by myself.
Now, I googled a lot and can't find an example of how this class should work. Let's consider I have an u tag for underlining some text (I know that this is deprecated, but whatever). How does my TagHandler look like?
It is called in the following way:
public void handleTag(boolean opening, String tag, Editable output, XMLReader xmlReader) {
The first two arguments are fine. I guess I have to modify output using output.append(). But how do I attach something underlined there?

Answer 1

So, i finally figured it out by myself.
public class MyHtmlTagHandler implements TagHandler {
public void handleTag(boolean opening, String tag, Editable output, XMLReader xmlReader) {
if(tag.equalsIgnoreCase("strike") || tag.equals("s")) {
processStrike(opening, output);
}
}
private void processStrike(boolean opening, Editable output) {
int len = output.length();
if(opening) {
output.setSpan(new StrikethroughSpan(), len, len, Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
Object obj = getLast(output, StrikethroughSpan.class);
int where = output.getSpanStart(obj);
output.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
output.setSpan(new StrikethroughSpan(), where, len, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
}
private Object getLast(Editable text, Class kind) {
Object[] objs = text.getSpans(0, text.length(), kind);
if (objs.length == 0) {
return null;
} else {
for(int i = objs.length;i>0;i--) {
if(text.getSpanFlags(objs[i-1]) == Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK) {
return objs[i-1];
}
}
return null;
}
}
}
And for your TextView you can call this like:
myTextView.setText (Html.fromHtml(text.toString(), null, new MyHtmlTagHandler()));
if anybody needs it.
Cheers

Answer 2

This solution is found in the Android sdk
In android.text.html. Lines 596 - 626. Copy/pasted
private static <T> Object getLast(Spanned text, Class<T> kind) {
/*
* This knows that the last returned object from getSpans()
* will be the most recently added.
*/
Object[] objs = text.getSpans(0, text.length(), kind);
if (objs.length == 0) {
return null;
} else {
return objs[objs.length - 1];
}
}
private static void start(SpannableStringBuilder text, Object mark) {
int len = text.length();
text.setSpan(mark, len, len, Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
}
private static <T> void end(SpannableStringBuilder text, Class<T> kind,
Object repl) {
int len = text.length();
Object obj = getLast(text, kind);
int where = text.getSpanStart(obj);
text.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
text.setSpan(repl, where, len, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
To use, override TagHandler like so:
public void handleTag(boolean opening, String tag, Editable output, XMLReader xmlReader) {
if(tag.equalsIgnoreCase("strike") || tag.equals("s")) {
if(opening){
start((SpannableStringBuilder) output, new Strike();
} else {
end((SpannableStringBuilder) output, Strike.class, new StrikethroughSpan());
}
}
}
/*
* Notice this class. It doesn't really do anything when it spans over the text.
* The reason is we just need to distinguish what needs to be spanned, then on our closing
* tag, we will apply the spannable. For each of your different spannables you implement, just
* create a class here.
*/
private static class Strike{}

Answer 3

I took janoliver's answer and came up with my version that attempts to support more options
String text = ""; // HTML text to convert
// Preprocessing phase to set up for HTML.fromHtml(...)
text = text.replaceAll("<span style=\"(?:color: (#[a-fA-F\\d]{6})?; )?(?:font-family: (.*?); )?(?:font-size: (.*?);)? ?\">(.*?)</span>",
"<font color=\"$1\" face=\"$2\" size=\"$3\">$4</font>");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )face=\"'(.*?)', .*?\"", "face=\"$1\"");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )(face=\".*?\" )size=\"xx-small\"", "$1size=\"1\"");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )(face=\".*?\" )size=\"x-small\"", "$1size=\"2\"");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )(face=\".*?\" )size=\"small\"", "$1size=\"3\"");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )(face=\".*?\" )size=\"medium\"", "$1size=\"4\"");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )(face=\".*?\" )size=\"large\"", "$1size=\"5\"");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )(face=\".*?\" )size=\"x-large\"", "$1size=\"6\"");
text = text.replaceAll("(?<=<font color=\"#[a-fA-F0-9]{6}\" )(face=\".*?\" )size=\"xx-large\"", "$1size=\"7\"");
text = text.replaceAll("<strong>(.*?)</strong>", "<_em>$1</_em>"); // we use strong for bold-face
text = text.replaceAll("<em>(.*?)</em>", "<strong>$1</strong>"); // and em for italics
text = text.replaceAll("<_em>(.*?)</_em>", "<em>$1</em>"); // but Android uses em for bold-face
text = text.replaceAll("<span style=\"background-color: #([a-fA-F0-9]{6}).*?>(.*?)</span>", "<_$1>$2</_$1>");
text_view.setText(Html.fromHtml(text, null, new Html.TagHandler() {
private List<Object> _format_stack = new LinkedList<Object>();
#Override
public void handleTag(boolean open_tag, String tag, Editable output, XMLReader _) {
if (tag.startsWith("ul"))
processBullet(open_tag, output);
else if (tag.matches(".[a-fA-F0-9]{6}"))
processBackgroundColor(open_tag, output, tag.substring(1));
}
private void processBullet(boolean open_tag, Editable output) {
final int length = output.length();
if (open_tag) {
final Object format = new BulletSpan(BulletSpan.STANDARD_GAP_WIDTH);
_format_stack.add(format);
output.setSpan(format, length, length, Spanned.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
applySpan(output, length, Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
private void processBackgroundColor(boolean open_tag, Editable output, String color) {
final int length = output.length();
if (open_tag) {
final Object format = new BackgroundColorSpan(Color.parseColor('#' + color));
_format_stack.add(format);
output.setSpan(format, length, length, Spanned.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
applySpan(output, length, Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
private Object getLast(Editable text, Class kind) {
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
final Object[] spans = text.getSpans(0, text.length(), kind);
if (spans.length != 0)
for (int i = spans.length; i > 0; i--)
if (text.getSpanFlags(spans[i-1]) == Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK)
return spans[i-1];
return null;
}
private void applySpan(Editable output, int length, int flags) {
if (_format_stack.isEmpty()) return;
final Object format = _format_stack.remove(0);
final Object span = getLast(output, format.getClass());
final int where = output.getSpanStart(span);
output.removeSpan(span);
if (where != length)
output.setSpan(format, where, length, flags);
}
}));
This does seem to get the bullets, foreground color, and background color. It might work for the font-face but you might need to supply the fonts as it doesn't seem that Android supports fonts other than Droid/Roboto.
This is more of a proof-of-concept, you might probably want to convert the regex into String processing, since regex doesn't support combining the preprocessing in any way, meaning this takes a lot of passes over the String. This also doesn't seem to get the font size to change, I've tried defining it like "16sp", "medium", or "4" without seeing changes. If anyone has gotten sizes to work, mind sharing?
I currently would like to be able to add numbered/ordered list support to this, i.e.
item
item
item
NOTE:
To people starting with any of this, it seems that the "tag" that is given to handleTag(...) is just the name of the tag (like "span"), and doesn't contain any of the attributes assigned in the tag (like if you have "), you can see my loophole around this for the background color.

Answer 4

We have been developing internally this library https://github.com/square1-io/rich-text-android for a while now and we use it in a number of content intensive news apps.
The library can parse most common html tags including video and img with remote download of images.
A custom view, RichTextView can then be used as a replacement of TextView to display the parsed content.
We have released it publicly just recently so the doc is still incomplete however the example provided should be easy to follow to see if it fit your needs.

Answer 5

Although I can see it it in Html.java API that style and text-align should be usable with the tags <p> , <div> etc. I am failing to get it to work with <p align="center"> or <p style="text-align: center"> and many other variants. Not being able to do this center alignment of text, and other styles like font size, multiple font faces from my ttf files, background colour, I have made my own htmlTextView based on TextView but with my own tagHandler class. Given one or two minor irritations, most of the tags are fine but my custom alignment tags, left, centre, right work only in special conditions (that I don't understand), otherwise. they don't work or crash the app! This is my alignment tag handle. It has the same structure as all the other custom tag handlers but really behaves weirdly! The basic form of my tag handlers are the same and are not conceived by me! I found the taghandler template after many hours searching on the web. I am grateful to whoever it was that posted it but my memory and organisational ability are such that I can't really remember who or where, so if you recognise this code as yours please let me know. The only link (which is here) I have is in my code: stackoverflow: Android: How to use the Html.TagHandler?
private void ProcessAlignment(Layout.Alignment align, boolean opening, Editable output) {
int len = output.length();
if (opening) {
output.setSpan(new AlignmentSpan.Standard(align), len, len, Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
Object obj = getLast(output, AlignmentSpan.Standard.class);
int where = output.getSpanStart(obj);
output.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
output.setSpan(new AlignmentSpan.Standard(align), where, len, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
}
I think the problem is that the end tag is not getting connected the correct start tag.
private Object getLast(Editable text, Class kind) {
Object[] objs = text.getSpans(0, text.length(), kind);
if (objs.length == 0) {
return null;
} else {
for (int i = objs.length - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
if (text.getSpanFlags(objs[i]) == Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK) {
return objs[i];
}
}
return null;
}
}
This is the total class and something is not right. The largest component is my understanding! Perhaps someone can help me understand better...
public class htmlTextView extends AppCompatTextView {
static Typeface mLogo;
static Typeface mGAMZ;
static Typeface mChalk;
static Typeface mSouvenir;
int GS_PAINTFLAGS = FILTER_BITMAP_FLAG | ANTI_ALIAS_FLAG | SUBPIXEL_TEXT_FLAG | HINTING_ON;
public htmlTextView(Context context) {
super(context);
initialise();
}
public htmlTextView(Context context, #Nullable AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
initialise();
}
public htmlTextView(Context context, #Nullable AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
initialise();
}
private void initialise() {
mLogo = Typeface.createFromAsset(theAssetManager, "fonts/logo.ttf");
mGAMZ = Typeface.createFromAsset(theAssetManager, "fonts/GAMZ One.ttf");
mChalk = Typeface.createFromAsset(theAssetManager, "fonts/swapfix.ttf");
mSouvenir = Typeface.createFromAsset(theAssetManager, "fonts/Souvenir Regular.ttf");
setPaintFlags(GS_PAINTFLAGS);
}
public void setDefaultTypefaceSouvenir() {
setTypeface(mSouvenir);
}
public void setDefaultTypefaceGAMZ() {
setTypeface(mGAMZ);
}
public void setDefaultTypefaceChalk() {
setTypeface(mChalk);
}
/*public myTextView(Context context, #Nullable AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr, int defStyleRes) {
super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr, defStyleRes);
}*/
public void setHTML(String htmltext) {
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) { // Nougat API 24
setText(Html.fromHtml(htmltext, Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY,
null, new TypefaceTagHandler()));
} else {
setText(Html.fromHtml(htmltext, null, new TypefaceTagHandler()));
}
}
#Override
protected void dispatchDraw(Canvas canvas) {
super.dispatchDraw(canvas);
}
#Override
protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
super.onDraw(canvas);
}
#Override
public Bitmap getDrawingCache(boolean autoScale) {
return super.getDrawingCache(autoScale);
}
#Override
public void draw(Canvas canvas) {
super.draw(canvas);
}
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4044509/android-how-to-use-the-html-taghandler
private static class TypefaceTagHandler implements Html.TagHandler {
private void ProcessAlignment(Layout.Alignment align, boolean opening, Editable output) {
int len = output.length();
if (opening) {
output.setSpan(new AlignmentSpan.Standard(align), len, len, Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
Object obj = getLast(output, AlignmentSpan.Standard.class);
int where = output.getSpanStart(obj);
output.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
output.setSpan(new AlignmentSpan.Standard(align), where, len, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
}
private void ProcessTypefaceTag(Typeface tf, boolean opening, Editable output) {
int len = output.length();
if (opening) {
output.setSpan(new CustomTypefaceSpan("", tf), len, len,
Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
Object obj = getLast(output, CustomTypefaceSpan.class);
int where = output.getSpanStart(obj);
output.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
output.setSpan(new CustomTypefaceSpan("", tf), where, len,
Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
}
private void ProcessScaleTag(float scalefactor, boolean opening, Editable output) {
int len = output.length();
if (opening) {
output.setSpan(new RelativeSizeSpan(scalefactor), len, len,
Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
Object obj = getLast(output, RelativeSizeSpan.class);
int where = output.getSpanStart(obj);
output.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
output.setSpan(new RelativeSizeSpan(scalefactor), where, len,
Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
}
private void ProcessBox(int colour, boolean opening, Editable output) {
int len = output.length();
if (opening) {
output.setSpan(new BackgroundColorSpan(colour), len, len,
Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
Object obj = getLast(output, BackgroundColorSpan.class);
int where = output.getSpanStart(obj);
output.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
output.setSpan(new BackgroundColorSpan(colour), where, len,
Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
}
private void ProcessTextColour(int colour, boolean opening, Editable output) {
int len = output.length();
if (opening) {
output.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(colour), len, len,
Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK);
} else {
Object obj = getLast(output, ForegroundColorSpan.class);
int where = output.getSpanStart(obj);
output.removeSpan(obj);
if (where != len) {
output.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(colour), where, len,
Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
}
}
}
final HashMap<String, String> attributes = new HashMap<>();
#Override
public void handleTag(boolean opening, String tag, Editable output, XMLReader xmlReader) {
String Attr = "";
//if (!opening) attributes.clear();
processAttributes(xmlReader);
if ("txt".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
Attr = attributes.get("clr");
System.out.println("clr Attr: " + Attr + ", opening: " + opening);
if (Attr == null || Attr.isEmpty()
|| "black".equalsIgnoreCase(Attr)
|| Attr.charAt(0) == 'k') {
System.out.println("did black, opening: " + opening);
ProcessTextColour(parseColor("#000000"), opening, output);
} else {
if (Attr.equalsIgnoreCase("g")) {
ProcessTextColour(parseColor("#b2b3b3"), opening, output);
} else {
System.out.println("did colour, opening: " + opening);
ProcessTextColour(parseColor(Attr), opening, output);
}
}
return;
}
if ("box".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
ProcessBox(parseColor("#d7d6d5"), opening, output);
return;
}
if ("scl".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
Attr = attributes.get("fac");
System.out.println("scl Attr: " + Attr);
if (Attr != null && !Attr.isEmpty()) {
ProcessScaleTag(parseFloat(Attr), opening, output);
}
return;
}
if ("left".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
ProcessAlignment(Layout.Alignment.ALIGN_NORMAL, opening, output);
return;
}
if ("centre".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
ProcessAlignment(Layout.Alignment.ALIGN_CENTER, opening, output);
return;
}
if ("right".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
ProcessAlignment(Layout.Alignment.ALIGN_OPPOSITE, opening, output);
return;
}
if ("logo".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
ProcessTypefaceTag(mLogo, opening, output);
return;
}
if ("gamz".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
ProcessTypefaceTag(mGAMZ, opening, output);
return;
}
if ("chalk".equalsIgnoreCase(tag)) {
System.out.println("chalk " + (opening ? "opening" : "closing"));
ProcessTypefaceTag(mChalk, opening, output);
return;
}
}
private Object getLast(Editable text, Class kind) {
Object[] objs = text.getSpans(0, text.length(), kind);
if (objs.length == 0) {
return null;
} else {
for (int i = objs.length - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
if (text.getSpanFlags(objs[i]) == Spannable.SPAN_MARK_MARK) {
return objs[i];
}
}
return null;
}
}
private void processAttributes(final XMLReader xmlReader) {
try {
Field elementField = xmlReader.getClass().getDeclaredField("theNewElement");
elementField.setAccessible(true);
Object element = elementField.get(xmlReader);
Field attsField = element.getClass().getDeclaredField("theAtts");
attsField.setAccessible(true);
Object atts = attsField.get(element);
Field dataField = atts.getClass().getDeclaredField("data");
dataField.setAccessible(true);
String[] data = (String[])dataField.get(atts);
Field lengthField = atts.getClass().getDeclaredField("length");
lengthField.setAccessible(true);
int len = (Integer)lengthField.get(atts);
/**
* MSH: Look for supported attributes and add to hash map.
* This is as tight as things can get :)
* The data index is "just" where the keys and values are stored.
*/
for(int i = 0; i < len; i++)
attributes.put(data[i * 5 + 1], data[i * 5 + 4]);
}
catch (Exception e) {
Log.d(TAG, "Exception: " + e);
}
}
}
private static class CustomTypefaceSpan extends TypefaceSpan {
private final Typeface newType;
public CustomTypefaceSpan(String family, Typeface type) {
super(family);
newType = type;
}
#Override
public void updateDrawState(TextPaint ds) {
applyCustomTypeFace(ds, newType);
}
#Override
public void updateMeasureState(TextPaint paint) {
applyCustomTypeFace(paint, newType);
}
private void applyCustomTypeFace(Paint paint, Typeface tf) {
int oldStyle;
Typeface old = paint.getTypeface();
if (old == null) {
oldStyle = 0;
} else {
oldStyle = old.getStyle();
}
int fake = oldStyle & ~tf.getStyle();
if ((fake & Typeface.BOLD) != 0) {
paint.setFakeBoldText(true);
}
if ((fake & Typeface.ITALIC) != 0) {
paint.setTextSkewX(-0.25f);
}
paint.setTypeface(tf);
}
}
}
The htmlTextView is created from the activity with:
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
theAssetManager = getAssets();
htmlTextView tv = new htmlTextView(this);
tv.setDefaultTypefaceSouvenir();
tv.setTextColor(BLACK);
tv.setBackgroundColor(0xfff0f0f0);
tv.setPadding(4, 4, 4, 4);
tv.setTextSize(30);
tv.setMovementMethod(new ScrollingMovementMethod());
tv.setHTML(getString(R.string.htmljumblies));
//tv.setHTML(getString(R.string.htmltest));
RelativeLayout rl = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.rl);
rl.addView(tv);
}
and htmljumblies is defined in strings.xml as below. This particular version will crash the app but if the first <centre>, </centre> tags are removed from lines 7 and 9, The Jumblies will appear centralised? Confusing and frustrating! Keep them and remove the <centre>, </centre> tags enfolding The Jumblies and nothing happens. The line in the header is not centrally aligned!
<string name="htmljumblies">
<![CDATA[&DoubleLongRightArrow;<logo><scl fac="1.1"><font color="#e5053a">GAMZ</font></scl></logo>
<chalk><scl fac="1.8"> SWAP </scl></chalk>
<scl fac="1.00">Set <b>1</b>, Game <b>1</b></scl>
<br>
<centre>
<gamz><font color="#e5053a"><scl fac="1.50">a</scl></font><scl fac="0.90">(9)</scl></gamz>, <gamz><font color="#00a3dd"><scl fac="1.50">e</scl></font><scl fac="0.90">(8)</scl></gamz>, <gamz><font color="#fba311"><scl fac="1.50">i</scl></font><scl fac="0.90">(8)</scl></gamz>, <gamz><font color="#bc5e1e"><scl fac="1.50">o</scl></font><scl fac="0.90">(8)</scl></gamz>, <gamz><font color="#bf30b5"><scl fac="1.50">u</scl></font><scl fac="0.90">(9)</scl></gamz>
</centre>
<br>
This is an example of my custom <b>htmlTextView</b> drawn from HTML format
text with custom tags to use custom fonts, colouring typeface sizing and highlight boxes.
The default font is <b><i>Souvenir</i></b>, but 3 other fonts are used:<br>
The <font color="#e5053a"><b><logo><scl fac="1.1">GAMZ</scl></logo></b></font>
<font color="#000080"><gamz><scl fac="0.8"><box>letter</box>
<box>fonts</box><sc></gamz></font>
and <chalk><scl fac="1.8">swapfix</scl></chalk>, essentially
<chalk><scl fac="0.9">Staccato 555</scl></chalk>,
as used in the words <chalk><scl fac="1.2">SWAP</scl></chalk> and
<chalk><scl fac="1.2">FIX</scl></chalk>
on the <font color="#e5053a"><b><logo><scl fac="1.1">GAMZ</scl></logo></b></font>
boxes.
<br>
<centre>
<scl fac="2"><box><b> <u>The Jumblies</u> </b></box></scl><br>
<font color="#0000ff">
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,<br>
In a Sieve they went to sea:<br>
In spite of all their friends could say,<br>
On a winter\'s morn, on a stormy day,<br>
In a Sieve they went to sea!<br>
And when the Sieve turned round and round,<br>
And every one cried, \'You\'ll all be drowned!\'<br>
They called aloud, \'Our Sieve ain\'t big,<br>
But we don\'t care a button! we don\'t care a fig!<br>
In a Sieve we\'ll go to sea!\'<br>
Far and few, far and few,<br>
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;<br>
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,<br>
And they went to sea in a Sieve.<br>
<br>
They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,<br>
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,<br>
With only a beautiful pea-green veil<br>
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,<br>
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;<br>
And every one said, who saw them go,<br>
\'O won\'t they be soon upset, you know!<br>
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,<br>
And happen what may, it\'s extremely wrong<br>
In a Sieve to sail so fast!\'<br>
Far and few, far and few,<br>
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;<br>
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,<br>
And they went to sea in a Sieve.<br>
<br>
The water it soon came in, it did,<br>
The water it soon came in;<br>
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet<br>
In a pinky paper all folded neat,<br>
And they fastened it down with a pin.<br>
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,<br>
And each of them said, \'How wise we are!<br>
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,<br>
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,<br>
While round in our Sieve we spin!\'<br>
Far and few, far and few,<br>
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;<br>
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,<br>
And they went to sea in a Sieve.<br>
<br>
And all night long they sailed away;<br>
And when the sun went down,<br>
They whistled and warbled a moony song<br>
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,<br>
In the shade of the mountains brown.<br>
\'O Timballo! How happy we are,<br>
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,<br>
And all night long in the moonlight pale,<br>
We sail away with a pea-green sail,<br>
In the shade of the mountains brown!\'<br>
Far and few, far and few,<br>
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;<br>
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,<br>
And they went to sea in a Sieve.<br>
<br>
They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,<br>
To a land all covered with trees,<br>
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,<br>
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,<br>
And a hive of silvery Bees.<br>
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,<br>
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,<br>
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,<br>
And no end of Stilton Cheese.<br>
Far and few, far and few,<br>
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;<br>
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,<br>
And they went to sea in a Sieve.<br>
<br>
And in twenty years they all came back,<br>
In twenty years or more,<br>
And every one said, \'How tall they\'ve grown!<br>
For they\'ve been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,<br>
And the hills of the Chankly Bore!\'<br>
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast<br>
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;<br>
And every one said, \'If we only live,<br>
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---<br>
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!\'<br>
Far and few, far and few,<br>
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;<br>
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,<br>
And they went to sea in a Sieve.</centre></font>
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