Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/85

Rh The prayers without a bow they prayed over me that day, Brought nigh to me the bier, and disposed me within.

Four bare upon their shoulders this tenement of clay, Friend and kinsman in procession bore the dust of friend and kin.

They threw upon me mould of the tomb, and went their way— A guest, 'twould seem, had flitted from the dwellings of the tribe!

My gold and my treasures each a share they bore away, Without thanks, without praise, with a jest and with a jibe.

My gold and my treasures each a share they bore away, On me they left the weight!—with me they left the sin!

That night within the grave without hoard or child I lay, No spouse, no friend were there, no comrade and no kin.

The wife of my youth soon another husband found— A stranger sat at home on the hearthstone of my sire.

My son became a slave, though not purchasèd nor bound, The hireling of a stranger, who begrudged him his hire.

Such, alas, is human life! such the horror of his death! Man grows like a grass, like a god he sees no end.

Be wise, then, ere too late, brother I praise with every breath The Hand that can chastise, the Arm that can defend:

And bless thou the Prophet, the averter of our ills, While the lightning flasheth bright o'er the ocean and the hills."

At this hour my companions become imaginative and superstitious. One Salimayn, a black slave from the