Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/98

 Yet was my mind distraught for the mare, how I might dispose her,

Till of a secret cave I thought, deep dug in the mountains,

And there I placed her close, and grass I brought her and water,

And gathered stones from the hill, and sealed the cavern with boulders,

Troubled in mind, O people, and left her there, and departed,

Uttering verses of power to hide it from eyes curious.

And thus I eased my grief, and soothed my soul in its anguish.

And I passed on foot through the waste by the ways my steps had trodden.

And I sat alone with myself in the empty breadth of the desert,

And I took from my back my wallet, and shook the dust from its leather,

And loosed the buttons all, and searched its inner recesses,

And took from it a dress should serve me for disguisement,

Unguents and oil of salgham, and red beans and essalkam,

And I roasted them on the fire till they were ripe and ruddy.

And I whitened my beard with chalk, and pulled down my mustachios,