MR. PRINGLE'S TOEM. 85 



Away, away, from the dwellings of men, 



By the wild deer's haunt, and the buffalo's glen, 



By valleys remote, where the oribi plays: 



Where the gnoo, the gazelle, and the hartebeest graze, 



And the gemsbok, and eland, imhunted recline 



By the skirts of grey forests, o'ergrown by wild vine: 



Where the elephant browses at peace in his wood, 



And the riverhorse gambols, unscared in the flood, 



And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will, 



In the " vley " where the wild ass is drinking his fill. 



4- 



Afar in the Desert, I love to ride, 



With the silent bushboy alone by my side, 



O'er the brown "Karoo," * where the bleating cry 



Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively; 



Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane, 



In fields seldom freshened by moisture or rain; 



And the stately koodoo exultingly bounds, 



Undisturbed by the bay of the hunter's hounds, 



Where the timorous quagha's wild whistling neigh 



Is heard by the brack fountain, far away; 



And the fleet-footed ostrich, over the waste, 



Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste: 



Hieing away to the home of her rest 



Where she and her mate have scooped their nest, 



Far hid from the pitiless plunderer's view 



In the pathless depths of the parched Karoo; f 



While the vulture in circles wheels high o'erhead, 



Greedy to scent, and to gorge on the dead; 



And the grisly wolf, and shrieking jackal, 



Howl for their prey at the evening's fall; 



* Karoo = desert or dry place (a Hottentot word). 



f This and the three previous lines are from Noble's edition. 



