I think David Dale must have been thinking of "In the Neolithic Age", which ends:   "There are nine-and-sixty ways of constructing tribal lays / And every single one of them is right!"

    I find it interesting that so many Kipling stories are constructed rather like interviews (the Mulvaney stories, the Puck books, "The Janeites" and "A Friend of the Family").   "Mrs Bathurst," on the other hand is more like an inquest.    Regards to all, Lisa Lewis