86 "AFAR IN THE DESERT." 



And the fiend-like laugh of hyaenas grim 

 Fearfully startles the twilight dim. 



Afar in the Desert, I love to ride, 



With the silent bushboy alone by my side, 



Away, away, in the wilderness vast; 



Where the white man's foot hath never passed, 



And the quivered Koranna, or Bechuan, 



Hath rarely cross'd, with his roving clan. 



A region of emptiness howling and drear, 



Which man hath abandoned, from famine and fear; 



Which the snakes and the lizard inhabit alone, 



And the bat flitting forth from his old hollow stone; 



Where grass, nor herb, nor shrub, takes root, 



Save poisonous thorns that pierce the foot; 



And the bitter melon, for food and drink, 



Is the pilgrim's fare, by the salt lake's brink: 



A region of drought where no river glides, 



Nor rippling brook, with its osier'd sides, 



Where no reedy pool, nor bubbling fount, 



Nor shady tree, nor cloud-capped mount, 



Are found to refresh the aching eye: 



But the barren earth, and the burning sky, 



And the blank horizon, round and round, 



Without a living sight or sound, 



Tell to the heart, in its pensive mood, 



That this is Nature's solitude. 



6. 



And here, while the night winds round me sigh, 

 And the stars burn bright in the midnight sky : 

 As I sit apart, by the cavern'd stone, 

 Like Elijah at Horeb's cave alone, 



