Part 14 (1/2)

So from the inmost cavern, Thalaba Retrod the windings of the rock.

Still on the ground the giant limbs Of Zohak were outstretched; The spell of sleep had ceased And his broad eyes were glaring on the youth: Yet raised he not his arm to bar the way, Fearful to rouse the snakes Now lingering o'er their meal.

Oh then, emerging from that dreadful cave, How grateful did the gale of night Salute his freshened sense!

How full of lightsome joy, Thankful to Heaven, he hastens by the verge Of that bitumen lake, Whose black and heavy fumes, Surge heaving after surge, Rolled like the billowy and tumultuous sea.

The song of many a bird at morn Aroused him from his rest.

Lo! by his side a courser stood!

More animate of eye, Of form more faultless never had he seen, More light of limbs and beautiful in strength, Among the race whose blood, Pure and unmingled, from the royal steeds Of [108]Solomon came down.

The chosen Arab's eye Glanced o'er his graceful shape, His rich caparisons, His crimson trappings gay.

But when he saw the mouth Uncurbed, the unbridled neck, Then flushed his cheek, and leapt his heart, For sure he deemed that Heaven had sent The Courser, whom no erring hand should guide.

And lo! the eager Steed Throws his head and paws the ground, Impatient of delay!

Then up leapt Thalaba And away went the self-governed steed.

Far over the plain Away went the bridleless steed; With the dew of the morning his fetlocks were wet, The foam frothed his limbs in the journey of noon, Nor stayed he till over the westerly heaven The shadows of evening had spread.

Then on a sheltered bank The appointed Youth reposed, And by him laid the docile courser down.

Again in the grey of the morning Thalaba bounded up, Over hill, over dale Away goes the bridleless steed.

Again at eve he stops Again the Youth descends.

His load discharged, his errand done, Then bounded the courser away.

Heavy and dark the eve; The Moon was hid on high, A dim light only tinged the mist That crost her in the path of Heaven.

All living sounds had ceased, Only the flow of waters near was heard, A low and lulling melody.

Fasting, yet not of want Percipient, he on that mysterious steed Had reached his resting place, For expectation kept his nature up.

The flow of waters now Awoke a feverish thirst: Led by the sound, he moved To seek the grateful wave.

A meteor in the hazy air Played before his path; Before him now it rolled A globe of livid fire; And now contracted to a steady light, As when the solitary hermit prunes His lamp's long undulating flame: And now its wavy point Up-blazing rose, like a young cypress-tree Swayed by the heavy wind; Anon to Thalaba it moved, And wrapped him in its pale innocuous fire: Now in the darkness drowned Left him with eyes bedimmed, And now emerging[109] spread the scene to sight.

Led by the sound, and meteor-flame Advanced the Arab youth.

Now to the nearest of the many rills He stoops; ascending steam Timely repels his hand, For from its source it sprung, a boiling tide.

A second course with better hap he tries, The wave intensly cold Tempts to a copious draught.

There was a virtue in the wave, His limbs that stiff with toil, Dragged heavy, from the copious draught received Lightness and supple strength.

O'erjoyed, and deeming the benignant Power Who sent the reinless steed, Had blessed the healing waters to his use He laid him down to sleep; Lulled by the soothing and incessant sound, The flow of many waters, blending oft With shriller tones and deep low murmurings That from the fountain caves In mingled melody Like faery music, heard at midnight, came.

The sounds that last he heard at night Awoke his sense at morn.

A scene of wonders lay before his eyes.

In mazy windings o'er the vale Wandered a thousand streams; They in their endless flow[110] had channelled deep The rocky soil o'er which they ran, Veining its thousand islet stones, Like clouds that freckle o'er the summer sky, The blue etherial ocean circling each And insulating all.

A thousand shapes they wore, those islet stones, And Nature with her various tints Varied anew their thousand forms: For some were green with moss, Some rich with yellow lichen's gold, Or ruddier tinged, or grey, or silver-white, Or sparkling sparry radiance to the sun.

Here gushed the fountains up, Alternate light and blackness, like the play Of sunbeams, on the warrior's burnished arms.

Yonder the river rolled, whose bed, Their labyrinthine lingerings o'er Received the confluent rills.

This was a wild and wonderous scene, Strange and beautiful, as where By Oton-tala, like a sea[111] of stars, The hundred sources of Hoangho burst.

High mountains closed the vale, Bare rocky mountains, to all living things Inhospitable, on whose sides no herb Rooted, no insect fed, no bird awoke Their echoes, save the Eagle, strong of wing, A lonely plunderer, that afar Sought in the vales his prey.

Thither towards those mountains, Thalaba Advanced, for well he weened that there had Fate Destined the adventures end.

Up a wide vale winding amid their depths, A stony vale between receding heights Of stone, he wound his way.

A cheerless place! the solitary Bee Whose buzzing was the only sound of life Flew there on restless wing, Seeking in vain one blossom, where to fix.

Still Thalaba holds on, The winding vale now narrows on his way, And steeper of ascent Rightward and leftward rise the rocks, And now they meet across the vale.

Was it the toil of human hands That hewed a pa.s.sage in the rock, Thro' whose rude portal-way The light of heaven was seen?

Rude and low the portal-way, Beyond the same[112] ascending straits Went winding up the wilds.