newlines in basex 7.1.1

All I want is a b c a b c a b c a b c No trailing blanks. No leading blanks. Please advise. $ cat e.xq for $m in (1,2,3,4) return "a b c 
" $ basex e.xq|cat -e a b c $ a b c $ a b c $ a b c $ $ basex --version BaseX 7.1.1 [Standalone] The 
 wad at the end is as far as I got, from reading the previous discussion.