53 



What strength is seated in each brawny loin * 



What muscles brace his amplitude of groin ! 



Huge like a cedar, see his tail arise ; 



Large nerves their meshes weave about his thighs; 



His ribs are channels of unyielding brass, 



His chine a bar of iron's harden'd mass : 



My sovereign work; prime of the bestial kind, 



In power of body, and in gifts of mind. 



I, with a tusky falchion, armed his jaw, 



His foe to humble and the desert awe : 



In peaceful majesty of might he goes. 



And on the mountain tops his forage mows; 



Where beasts of ev'ry savage name resort, 



And in wild gambols round his greatness sport. 



In moory vales, beside the reedy pools, 



Deep plunged in ooze, his glowing flanks he cools • 



Or in umbrageous groves enjoys repose, 



Or bower'd in willows, where the torrent flows. 



Not swelling rivers can his heart dismay, 



He stalks secure along the wat'ry way. 



Should Jordan heap his overflowing waves 



Against his mouth, the foaming flood he braves. 



Go now, thy courage on this creature try, 



Dare the bold duel, meet his open eye. 



Sublime on thy gigantic captive ride, 



And, with a slender string, his vastness guide. 



I now proceed to exhibit the parts which 

 more decidedly mark the remains of the behe- 

 moth: they consist, u/, of grinders exclusi>'x.ly 

 worn by animals of the herbivorous or -ramini- 



