e beautiful
Midden I remembered her last of all things when the hoarse-voiced
Mulgars sailed away!"

Green and dark and utterly still Arakkaboa's southern forests drew
backward, with the westering sun beaming hazily behind their nameless
peaks. Nod heard a sullen wash of water, the picture narrowed, faded,
darkened, and in a moment they were floating in an inky darkness, lit
only by the dim and wavering light of the torches.

The cavern widened as the rafts drew inward. But the Mulgars with their
poles drove them into the middle of the stream, for here the current ran
faster, and they feared their leafy craft might be caught by overhanging
rocks near the cavern walls. A host of long-eared bats, startled from
sleep by the echoing cries and splashings, and the smoke of the torches,
unhooked their leathery hoods, and, mousily glancing, came flitting this
way, that way, squeaking shrilly as if scolding the hairy sailors. They
reminded Nod of the chattering troops of Skeetoes swinging on their
frosty ropes in the gloom of Munza-mulgar. When with smoother water the
raftsmen's shouts were hushed, a strange silence swept down upon the
travellers. Nod glanced up uneasily at the faintly shimmering roof hung
with pale spars. Only the sip and whisper of the water could be heard,
and the faint crackle of the dry torch-wood. Thumb flapped the water
impatiently with his long pole. "Ugh, Ummanodda, this hole of darkness
chills my bones. Sing, child, sing!"

"What shall I sing, Thumb?"

"Sing that jingling lingo the blood-supping Oomgar-mulgar taught you.
How goes it?--'Pore Benoleben.'"

So in the dismal water-caverns of Arakkaboa Nod sang out in his seesaw
voice, to please his brother, Battle's old English song, "Poor Ben, old
Ben."

"Widecks awas'
Widevry sea,
An' flyin' scud
For companee,
Ole Benporben
Keepz watcherlone:
Boatz, zails, helmaimust,
Compaz gone.

"Not twone ovall
'Is shippimuts can
Pipe pup ta prove
'Im livin' man:
One indescuppers
Flappziz 'and,
Fiss-like, as you
May yunnerstand.

"An' one bracedup
Azzif to weat,
'Az aldy deck
For watery zeat;
Andwidda zteep
Unwonnerin' eye
Ztares zon tossed sea
An' emputy zky.
Pore Benoleben,
Pore-Benn-ole-Ben!"

When Nod's last quavering drawl had died away, Thumb lifted up his own
hoarse, grating voice in