Page:Potipharswifeoth00arnoiala.djvu/71

 The Musmee's hair could teach the night

How to grow dark, the raven's wing

How to seem ebon! Grand the sight

When, in rich masses, towering,

She builds each high black-marble coil,

And binds the gold and scarlet in;

And thrusts, triumphant, through the toil

The Kanzâshi, her jewelled pin.

The Musmee has wee faultless feet,

With snow-white tabi trimly decked,

Which patter down the city street

In short steps, slow and circumspect;

A velvet string between her toes

Holds to its place th' unwilling shoe:

Pretty and pigeon-like she goes,

And on her head a hood of blue.

The Musmee wears a wondrous dress—

Kimono, obi, imoji—

A rose-bush in Spring loveliness

Is not more color-glad to see!

Her girdle holds her silver pipe,