Page:Livingstone in Africa.djvu/72

50 Dazed with the wassail-bowl, and fumes that rise From gurgling gourds, to steal bewilder'd sense, Sense light as thistle-down; gay young buffoons, And elder fools allowing allusions free, With frantic, half-lewd gestures, bounden only By salutary fear of me, the Master

One tells a tale of perilous hunts with spear, Envenom'd arrows, shields of rugged hide; Relates the infuriate, unwieldy charge Of rough, one-horn'd, uncouth rhinoceros; Or elephant snapping crush'd dishevell'd trees, With horrible, ear-bursting trumpet-bray. They tell of graceful, lithe, long-neck'd giraffes, Beating the plain with undulating flight; Strong striding ostrich, spuming the burnt sand; Of crawling dumb to leeward of a herd— Kudu, or eland wearing wreathen horns.

Or they relate some wonderful weird tale Of sorcery and superstition strange; For one affirms he knew in such a village