But soon within her gates we found The grace and glory gone: Darkness for splendour all around, And clay for precious stone. Was this the joy that beamed on us, Descending Antilibanus? Again a change--a door we pass-- O magical surprise! Fount, lamps, divans, arcaded glass, A traveller's paradise! Emblems of life and death with us We brought from Antilibanus. THE TWO GOATS. Two goats met on an Alpine ridge, Sharp, sheer, and horrible to see; One crouched and formed a living bridge, And so they passed unscathed and free. That both might prosper one must bend, Oh, learn the lesson, reader mine! So shalt thou compass mercy's end, And so conform to love divine. [Illustration] THE ARAB WELL. Ah me! it is a cruel spell For Truth as for mankind, If to the depth of yonder well The goddess be consigned. For there the sex in daily rout With scandal taint the air; No lying rumour runs about But hath a mother there. Dumb Truth the while in that dark place A laughing-stock is laid; They dash the bucket in her face, Widow, and wife, and maid. THE DEAD CROCODILE. Upon the bank of ancient Nile, A shoal of Arab boys Belaboured a dead crocodile, With oriental noise. They cursed his mother and his beard, They cursed his spotted sire, They kicked, and smote, and spat, and jeered, And pelted him with mire. They lashed a cord around his jaws, They sat astride his back, They twisted round his webbed claws, And made the sinews crack. When all at once the cold dead thing, As by Galvani's art, Its flabby tail appeared to swing With momentary start. Away, away, fled every one, Round corners and up trees, And left the monster all alone In death's unbroken peace. Emblem of cowardice is here, Patent to mind and eye: What they deserve such wretches fear, Without a danger nigh. THE HYÆNA. I saw a foul hyæna led, Two slaves his snout had bound, Captured within a tomb they said, And showed his jaws still reeking red With blood from holy ground. Vile scribblers in their greed of gold, Thus through death's cerements thrust, 'Mid scandals there obscene and old, And tales of darkness best untold, Battening on filthy dust. [Illustration] GRATITUDE. The Moslem who accepts your alms Thanks God alone, the kind and true; The Frank, if guerdon cross his palms, Thanks only you. Both kindness here, and grace above, Duly should every heart confess; And they who slight a brother's love, Slight God's no less. THE NUBIAN BOATMEN. These bronze-armed slaves so lithe and strong, Row on for many a glassy mile Through burning hours, and all the while They praise in sweet recurring song, "The Lord that brings the Nile."