Sharp smote the chieftain's sword, and fierce Fought all his martial peers; Yet we won my loved, my fair one, Me and my shining spears. 2. Come, mount this steed,- -a gallanter That never touches earth: O'er ten men's strength he boldly bursts, His neigh is like the trumpet's tongue 3. Another steed, fleet as the wind, O! brighter than the brightest star 4. O, God is great!-how lion-like I rush'd and rent my prey! O, God is great! for ten men's strength Though guns were flashing far and wide, A charmed life he bears, Who wars for so much loveliness, Me and my shining spears. "Friend Wulik," said Lord Dalveen, "that is a song worthy of a drawing-room as well as a de VOL. II I. M sert. But what, I pray thee, are these multitudes of little hillocks which fill the plain on our right hand ?”—“ There is no place utterly barren and desolate," replied Wulik; "these hillocks are the habitations of creatures which enjoy the dreariness that oppresses you. They are the dwellings of the dark ants of the desert,-wo to the four-footed creature that visits their abode, and wo even to the fowls of the air which rest among them! Their strength is great, their motions swift, and their bite venomous." Wulik, as he spoke, snatched a large pebble from the ground, and threw it with as much force as a sling against one of the nearest hillocks. The shock of the stone seemed to be felt through the whole community of ants,-they came hurrying out in hundreds and thousands and millions, and crowded upon their separate eminences. "Cursed be he of my tribe," said the warrior, "who passes without casting a stone upon these venomous reptiles! -the bones of one of the heroes of my kindred lie unburied amongst these hillocks, he was wounded in a war with the Long Knives,-sought shelter there, and was stung till he died." The hot and arid wind now blew upon them.It was filled with the fine dust which the breeze lifted from the plains, and annoyed the young nobleman sorely. He motioned for drink. Wulik smiled, and said,— "We must reserve the comforts of the calabash for a wilder portion of our journey. To this plain neither stream nor well is given, yet no place is wholly desolate, save the city where food is locked up from him who has not money to buy it. Look at this!" So saying, he plucked with great caution from the ground an herb, whose broad thick leaves were gathered into a cup brimful of pure delicious dew, while the gatherings were defended by a small leaf which closed up the apertures, excluding the dust, and with its sharp prickles repelling the ant of the desert. "Behold," said Wulik, "it is thus that God preserves his distilled dews for his poor children of dust and sorrow." Lord Dalveen drank this little cup filled by nature's own hand, and Wulik, taking the herb, expanded the leaves and said, "A sermon might be preached from such a specimen of God's economy and mercy as this is. When the dews come down at night to gladden the burning sand, this little herb lays out all its leaves to catch the moisture,-while the leaves gather the dews they curl gradually upwards, as a man shuts his hands, and, closing over the liquid treasure, they present to the traveller's parched lips at morn a cup filled with such pure water as thou hast now tasted. Praise ye, therefore, Eleuwillisset, the one God above all others in goodness." The sun began to descend behind the hills, the air became more fresh and cool,-the verdure assumed a livelier hue,-the flowers sprung more plentiful, and a herd of wild deer, as they bounded away from their pasturage, informed them that they had passed the region of sterility, and were come where the wild bee could live, and the wild roe find food. "We shall be parched up with thirst, Wulik,” said Lord Dalveen, "before we can reach yon distant mountains, with all their running streams."-"For that," answered the other, "there is a remedy; we are now on the banks of one of those immense rivers which traverse our inland solitudes." Lord Dalveen rode forward, and he soon saw, gliding along in silent majesty, a river deep and broad,-its margins studded with wild flowers, its bosom half-veiled in the snowy waterlily, with blossoms expanded to the sun, while innumerable water-fowl skimmed along the surface, dreading neither the face nor the arms of man. The banks were nearly brimful with the stream; and, but for the swimming of the wild swans, and the slight motion of the current, the river seemed a continuance of the plain. 66 Why this is a sea and not a river, Wulik,” said Lord Dalveen; "it seems deep, and I am sure it is broad,-there is no boat, and I can see no ford."-" Ford!" exclaimed the guide in astonishment," the sea has no ford, yet men cross itfollow me." He dashed at once into the stream, making the water fly and the wild-fowl take the wing." I love this," said Wulik, as the horse of Lord Dalveen came swimming to his side. "On a wild steed's back I often descend from the hills into the streams, and journey over waters never sundered by the keel of a ship, the dwelling-place of the wild swans. To me, the delight of flying with the wind of the desert, or moving with the solitary and majestic stream, is what you cannot well feel, since you know not what natural freedom is. But let us be moving,-the silent man is the surest traveller." They ascended the riverbank, their horses shook the water from their breasts and flanks, grazed a few minutes on the grassy margin, and then continued their journey. |