Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/481

 AMONG DAUGHTERS OF THE DESERT 447

legs, and looked round, worthy and wise. And with his nostrils he slowly and questioningly drew in the air, like one who tasteth new air in new countries. Then he began to sing with a kind of roar.

��" The desert groweth. Woe unto him who containeth deserts /

Ha!

. Solemn !

A worthy beginning!

In African solemnity!

Worthy of a lion,

Or of a moral howling monkey,

But nothing for you,

Ye sweetest girl-friends,

At the feet of whom

I am permitted to sit,

An European under palm-trees. Sela.

Wonderful, verily ! There sit I now

Nigh unto the desert, and already So far away from the desert, Not yet ruined in anything. For I am swallowed down- By this smallest oasis.

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