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The answer to the riddle is Jesus Christ.
The riddle describes a spiritual journey and the path to salvation, pointing to Jesus Christ as the central figure. It emphasizes themes of redemption, sacrifice, and eternal life, which are core to Christian theology. The "treasure" found in a field represents the Kingdom of Heaven or salvation through Jesus (Matthew 13:44). The one who "died and arose" and paid the debt with "His blood" clearly refers to Jesus' death and resurrection, which Christians believe atones for humanity's sins. The call to pray for forgiveness "in Jesus' name" reinforces this, as does the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which aligns with Christian teachings about turning from sin and pride to follow Jesus.
Each stanza builds on this narrative: the treasure of salvation, the torment of a life without peace, the necessity of Jesus’ sacrifice, the consequences of rejecting it, the devil’s persistent temptation, and the joy of living righteously through faith in Christ. The final lines make the answer explicit by urging the reader to pray for forgiveness in Jesus’ name, confirming that Jesus Christ is the solution to the riddle’s spiritual quest.

The Riddle

“Cattle Dust Communion” is Blind Mullet Chitlin’s bush preacher hymn to the branding fires of outback Queensland — a dust-choked gospel of men, moonlight, and molten iron. Between the hiss of the irons and the cry of the calves, Chitlin finds rough grace in the rhythm of the land, where every scar tells a story and every mark’s a prayer.
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Lyrics
Cattle Dust Communion

The brands are heatin' in the ember coals
Flies hang low like tobacco scrolls
Down at Netting Bore where the dust gets thick
And the sun cuts hard like a branding stick

Men shout rough through kerosene light
While the calves all cry like a harp at night
Boots stomp rhythm in the dust and flame
And every mark’s a prayer, every calf gets named

It’s a cattle dust communion
By the fire and the steel
Where the smoke and the blood
Make the outback real
Branded bone-deep in a sunset hymn
Out where the gods wear a stockman’s grin

The irons hiss like desert rain
Scars rise quick through the smell of pain
You can almost taste the ash on the branded skin
Hear the ghosts of the plains start rollin’ in
The dust is scripture, the fire is law

We work in silence with a cattleman's draw
And when the moon breaks free from the red-gum line
You feel the land breathe, ancient and blind
You feel the land breathe, ancient and blind
It’s a cattle dust communion 

It’s a cattle dust communion
With the iron and the hide
Where their bellows are loud
And the demons ride
We sing with smoke, and we dance with sin
‘Neath a Milky Way roof with a JD pannikin

Hear 'em shift in the pens like thunder
Hooves like hearts that never sleep
Min Min lights out past the ridges
Like headlights in a dream so deep

This is cattle dust communion
With fire at our feet
Where the wind blows prayers
And whiskey nights don’t sleep
If you’ve seen that moon on a dusty sky
You know they’re branded until the day they die amen
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“Cattle Dust Communion” was developed as part of the Blind Mullet Chitlin project, combining Wayne Halfpenny’s songwriting and musicianship with lyrical and conceptual contributions from ChatGPT (OpenAI), and music arrangement via Suno AI.

Acoustic guitars by Tom Halfpenny


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