d smiles,
For withered kisses still divide his wealth?
While I stand idle, lose the caravan
Whose least is notable?--My right and mine--
Betide me what betides."...

And with the morn
Before the man,--for privily she came,
Stood habited as of her tire-maids
In humble raiment. Now the ancient saw
And knew her for the princess that she was,
And kindling gladness of the knowledge made
Two sparkling forges of his deep dark eyes
Beneath the ashes of his priestly brows.
Not timidly she came; but coy approach
Became the maiden of Eddetma's suite;
And humbly answered he, "All my old heart!"--
Responsive to her quavering request--
"The daughter of the king did give thee leave?
And thou wouldst well?--Then wed with me forth-right.
Thy hand, thy lips." So he arose and gave
Her of barbaric jewelry and gems,
And seized her hand and from her lips the kiss,
When from his age, behold, the dotage fell,
And from the man all palsied hoariness;
Victorious-eyed and amorous with youth,
A god in ardent capabilities
Resistless held her; and she, swooning, saw
Gloating the branded brow of Prince Behram.

THE KHALIF AND THE ARAB.

_A Transcript._

Among the tales, wherein it hath been told,
In golden letters in a book of gold,
Of Hatim Tai's hospitality,
Who, substanceless in death and shadowy,
Made men his guests upon that mountain top
Whereon his tomb grayed from a thistle crop;--
A tomb of rock where women hewn of stone,
Rude figures, spread dishevelled hair; whose moan
From dark to daybreak made the silence cry;
The camel drivers, being tented nigh,
"Ghouls or hyenas," shuddering would say
But only girls of granite find at day:--

And of that city, Sheddad son of Aad
Built mid the Sebaa sands.--A king who had
Dominion of the world and many kings.--
Builded in pride and power out of things
Unstable of the earth. For he had read
Of Paradise, and to his soul had said,
"Now in this life the like of Paradise
I 'll build me and the Prophet's may despise,
Knowing no need of that he promises."
So for this city taxed the lands and seas,
And Columned Irem, on a blinding height,
Blazed in the desert like a chrysolite;
The manner of its building, it is told,
Alternate bricks of silver and of gold: