Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/318

304 For myriad creepers struggle to the light, And twine and mat o'erhead in murderous fight For life and sunshine, like another race That wars on brethren for the highest place. Between the water and the matted screen. The baldhead vultures, two and two, are seen In dismal grandeur, with revolting face Of foul grotesque, like spirits of the place; And now and then a spear-shaped wave goes by, Its apex glittering with an evil eye That sets above its enemy and prey. As from the wave in treacherous, slimy way The black snake winds, and strikes the bestial bird, Whose shriek-like wailing on the hills is heard.

Beyond this circling swamp, a circling waste Of baked and barren desert land is placed,— A land of awful grayness, wild and stark, Where man will never leave a deeper mark. On leagues of fissured clay and scorching stones, Than may be printed there by bleaching bones.