Page:The fireside sphinx.djvu/40

 14 of cats, so that no bird ever ventured to nest in its woods; and from this mysterious region, it was said, adventurous hunters carried away a few little captives to be enslaved by decadent Greece. A more probable and a more romantic tale has been adapted from the Greek by that graceful versifier, and true lover of cats, Graham Tomson. It gives a motive, at once cogent and reasonable, for the importation of Pasht's pussies.

"Arsinoë the fair, the amber-tressed,

Is mine no more;

Cold as the unsunned snows are is her breast,

And closed her door.

No more her ivory feet and tresses braided

Make glad mine eyes;

Snapt are my viol strings, my flowers are faded,

My love-lamp dies.

"Yet, once, for dewy myrtle-buds and roses,

All summer long,

We searched the twilight-haunted garden closes

With jest and song.

Ay, all is over now,—my heart hath changed

Its heaven for hell;

And that ill chance which all our love estranged

In this wise fell:

"A little lion, small and dainty sweet,

(For such there be!)

With sea-grey eyes and softly stepping feet,

She prayed of me.

For this, through lands Egyptian far away,

She bade me pass: