Would grow old and like the charred log cover itself with scales of ash! That this snout Would grow the tusks of a boar and dig the earth like a ploughshare! Our leader is dead. O beasts, my brothers, hail! THE STANDARD BEARER (_to one of these who is caring for_ TÊTE-D'OR): You hold his hair on your arm and you bury there the comb. And also the comb buries itself in my soul and I see this as though it were in a dream. O soldiers, what has happened? THE CENTURION: What do you wish to know? Is not this enough? What more do you wish to learn? Cursed be this country into which we have come! CASSIUS: It is I who will speak and tell you everything. And as it was I who announced victory so now shall I proclaim death! Certainly death was our guide When counter to the course of the sun we advanced across the infinite plain And, looking back, beheld the mountains behind us. At noon we sat and ate, then we took up our march again. But know that the heat was intolerable And under the weight of their packs and arms the soldiers died like flies, For the sun consumed us and we could find no shelter. And at two o'clock the wind arose, blowing the sand, And we remained there swallowed up like men engulfed in the earth, And when we emerged from the dust, We saw the red sun burning above our heads like a Moloch, And before us there lay an army. THE STANDARD BEARER: But what army? CASSIUS: Be still and do not uselessly interrupt me. Assuredly antique humanity had come before its sister. And as of old on the day of the separation we carefully considered one another. Their faces are nearer than ours to the color of the earth, And we saw in their hands the primitive arms and tools, and in their midst were set the kings and the chieftains, and above their heads the ancient idols swayed, The squatting, three-faced monsters, each brandishing six pairs of arms, And camels also were there and ranks of elephants, and tigers in wooden cages, And we heard the hollow thunder of gongs. Thus we gazed at each other, For our forebears descended on Europe, who like a man with outstretched arms lies upon the bosom of the waters, And theirs remained to multiply in the place in which they were. And we had lived our life in war and in tears, beset By the spirits of turbulence and wrath that rise from the restless and uninhabited sea. And over them with hangman's hands had been securely established the domination Of Brahma, Prince of Error, and Buddha, the demon of Peace, And above us burned the inflamed face of the sun. VOICE: O! CASSIUS: There we were, Hair full of sand, wading in sand up to the fleshy part of the leg, And seeing that multitude confronting us, Fear entered into us and a distaste for fighting, and for going forward forever on the face of that desert land. And we saw that we were few and dispersed and our cannon were sunk in the sand. And the King exhorted us, stretching out his arms,