Page:Ainsworth's Magazine - Volume 1.djvu/120

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THE AWAKENER IN THE DESERT.

descended the hills by myself. But my mishaps had not quite terminated; for some fellahs labouring in an adjacent field observing me, hurried away at full speed to intercept me. They were armed with small hatchets, which they waved over my head. I told them that I had been robbed of everything on the hills, and they did not discredit the story, but contented themselves with the kerchief round my neck, without examining my person. It was the third and last I had to give.

Proceeding a short distance beyond this I came to some cottages. Here there were some Arab women, who received me most kindly, and gave me milk. From them I first learned, to my infinite joy, that the steamer was not far distant, behind one of the islands. This turned out to be the case; and I had not travelled many miles down the river, before I distinguished the funnel among the column-like date-trees. On the side on which I was, however, there were no houses, and it was more than an hour before I could attract the attention of the Arabs on the island. This I had no sooner done than my arrival was made known on board the steamer, whence messengers had been dispatched in search of me the previous night; a boat was sent, and in a few moments more I was safe on board. I was heartily received by my companions, after a day and a night’s walk of upwards of fifty English miles, which afforded much that is illustrative of the true character of the Arab, who, with all his boasted hospitality and high-mindedness, will never lose an opportunity of robbing, when he can do it with impunity.

THE AWAKENER IN THE DESERT.

(From the German of Ferdinand Freiligrath.)

BY JOHN OXENFORD, ESQ.

Close by the Nile, amid the sands,A royal lion proudly stands,As yellow as the sands that bear him,Or the simoon that hovers near him.
In regal mantle is he dress’d,His broad mane falls about his breast;The hair that on his brow has grownHas stiffen’d to a wondrous crown.
The lion roars with lifted head,—How hollow is the voice!—how dread!Across the waste the sound is dull,’Tis plainly heard by Mœris’ pool.
The panther’s hide is stiff with fear,The crocodile and camel hearTheir monarch’s voice with anger swell,And trembling flies the light gazelle.
Back from the Nile that roar rebounds,Back from the pyramids it sounds,—The royal mummy, brown and weary,It wakes within those caverns dreary.
It rises in its narrow shrine:“Thanks, lion, for that roar of thine!Whole ages I in sleep have pass’d,Thy roar has waken’d me at last.
“Whole ages have I pass’d in dreaming,—Where are you, years, in grandeur gleaming?[1]When vict’ry’s banners round me flew,—Lion, thy sires my chariot drew.
“Proudly my gilded chariot roll’d,The beam was overlaid with gold,—The wheels, the spokes, with pearls would shine,—The hundred-gated[2] town was mine.
“These feet, that are so dry and weak,Trod on the Arab’s stubborn neck,Trod on the Indian’s tawny brow,Bent the Moor’s tangled forehead low.
“This hand has once the world controll’d,Which now the byssus must infold:All by yon hieroglyphs express’dBegun—was nurtured in this breast.
“The monument which o’er me standsIs but the fabric of my hands;I saw the workmen[3] hurried on,While I sat on my guarded throne.
“As on the waters I would float,My subject Nile would rock the boat,—The Nile which now, as ever, flows,While I have slept in deep repose,
“And all by darkness is conceal’d”—Here is the lion’s thunder still’d;As o’er his eyes a dulness creeps,The dead man sinks, and once more sleeps.
  1. ↑ “Glanzumsäumt.” The full meaning of this word is “edged or hemmed round with glory.”
  2. ↑ Thebes. It is to be hoped that the coining of such a word as “hundred-gated” is admissible, to give its full force to Hundertpfortenstadt.
  3. ↑ “Ziegelbrenner” is literally “brick-burners,” and refers to the children of Israel. In the same stanza, “speerbewacht” is literally “guarded by spears.”
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