Below her home the river rolled With soft meloobious sound, Where golden-finned Chuprassies[6] swam, In myriads circling round. Above, on tallest trees remote, Green Ayahs perched alone, And all night long the Mussak[7] moaned Its melancholy tone. III. And where the purple Nullahs[8] threw Their branches far and wide, And silvery Goreewallahs[9] flew In silence, side by side, The little Bheesties'[10] twittering cry Rose on the fragrant air, And oft the angry Jampan[11] howled Deep in his hateful lair. IV. She sat upon her Dobie,-- She heard the Nimmak[12] hum,-- When all at once a cry arose: "The Cummerbund[13] is come!" In vain she fled;--with open jaws The angry monster followed, And so (before assistance came), That Lady Fair was swallowed. V. They sought in vain for even a bone Respectfully to bury; They said, "Hers was a dreadful fate!" (And Echo answered, "Very.") They nailed her Dobie to the wall, Where last her form was seen, And underneath they wrote these words, In yellow, blue, and green:-- "Beware, ye Fair! Ye Fair, beware! Nor sit out late at night, Lest horrid Cummerbunds should come, And swallow you outright." NOTE.--First published in the _Times of India_, Bombay, July, 1874. THE DONG WITH A LUMINOUS NOSE. When awful darkness and silence reign Over the great Gromboolian plain, Through the long, long wintry nights;-- When the angry breakers roar, As they beat on the rocky shore;-- When Storm-clouds brood on the towering heights Of the Hills on the Chankly Bore:-- Then, through the vast and gloomy dark, There moves what seems a fiery spark, A lonely spark with silvery rays Piercing the coal-black night,-- A meteor strange and bright:-- Hither and thither the vision strays, A single lurid light. Slowly it wanders,--pauses,--creeps,-- Anon it sparkles,--flashes and leaps; And ever as onward it gleaming goes A light on the Bong-tree stems it throws. And those who watch at that midnight hour From Hall or Terrace, or lofty Tower, Cry, as the wild light passes along,-- "The Dong!--the Dong! "The wandering Dong through the forest goes! "The Dong! the Dong! "The Dong with a luminous Nose!" Long years ago The Dong was happy and gay, Till he fell in love with a Jumbly Girl Who came to those shores one day. For the Jumblies came in a Sieve, they did,-- Landing at eve near the Zemmery Fidd Where the Oblong Oysters grow, And the rocks are smooth and gray. And all the woods and the valleys rang With the Chorus they daily and nightly sang,-- "_Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve._"