11.

Woe! woe! Nealliny,

The young Nealliny,

They strip her ornaments away,

Bracelet and anklet, ring and chain and zone: Around her neck they leave

The marriage-knot alone,

That marriage band, which, when
Yon waning moon was young,
Around her virgin neck
With bridal joy was hung;

Then with white flowers, the coronal of death,
Her jetty locks they crown.

12.

Oh sight of misery!

You cannot hear her cries,

their sound

In that wild dissonance is drowned;
But in her face you see

The supplication and the agony,

See in her swelling throat the desperate strength That with vain effort struggles yet for life; Her arms contracted now in fruitless strife, Now wildly at full length

Towards the crowd in vain for pity spread: They force her on, they bind her to the dead.

13.

Then all around retire:

Circling the pile, the ministering Bramins stand,

Each lifting in his hand a torch on fire.
Alone the Father of the dead advanced,
And lit the funeral pyre.

14.

At once on every side
The circling torches drop;
At once on every side
The fragrant oil is poured;

At once on every side

The rapid flames rush up.

Then hand in hand the victim band
Roll in the dance around the funeral pyre:
Their garments' flying folds

Float inward to the fire;

In drunken whirl they wheel around;

One drops, another plunges in ;

And still with overwhelming din
The tambours and the trumpets sound;
And clap of hand, and shouts and cries,
From all the multitude arise;
While round and round, in giddy wheel,
Intoxicate they roll and reel,

Till one by one whirled in they fall, And the devouring flames have swallowed all.

15.

Then all was still; the drums and clarions ceased; The multitude were hushed in silent awe;

Only the roaring of the flames was heard.

II.

THE CURSE.

1.

ALONE towards the Table of the Dead
Kehama moved: there on the altar-stone
Honey and rice he spread;

There, with collected voice and painful tone,
He called upon his son.

Lo, Arvalan appears!

Only Kehama's powerful eye beheld
The thin, ethereal spirit hovering nigh;
Only the Rajah's ear

Received his feeble breath.

"And is this all," the mournful Spirit said, "This all that thou canst give me after death, This unavailing pomp,

These empty pageantries, that mock the dead?”

2.

In bitterness the Rajah heard,

And groaned, and smote his breast, and o'er his face Cowled the white mourning vest.

3.

ARVALAN.

Art thou not powerful, even like a God?
And must I, through my years of wandering,
Shivering and naked to the elements,
In wretchedness await

The hour of Yamen's wrath?
I thought thou wouldst embody me anew,
Undying as I am;

Yea, re-create me! Father, is this all?
This all? and thou Almighty!

4.

But in that wrongful and upbraiding tone
Kehama found relief;

For rising anger half suppressed his grief.
Reproach me not!" he cried:

66

"Had I not spell-secured thee from disease, Fire, sword, all common accidents of man?

And thou, fool, fool!

to perish by a stake!

And by a peasant's arm!

Even now, when from reluctant Heaven,

Forcing new gifts and mightier attributes, So soon I should have quelled the Death-God's

power."

5.

"Waste not thy wrath on me!" quoth Arvalan;
"It was my hour of folly! Fate prevailed;
Nor boots it to reproach me that I fell.
I am in misery, Father! Other souls,
Predoomed to Indra's Heaven, enjoy the dawn
Of bliss; to them the tempered elements
Minister joy; genial delight the sun
Sheds on their happy being, and the stars
Effuse on them benignant influences;

And thus o'er earth and air they roam at will,
And, when the number of their days is full,

Go fearlessly before the awful throne.

But I,- all naked feeling and raw life, What worse than this hath Yamen's hell in store? If ever thou didst love me, mercy, Father! Save me! for thou canst save; the Elements Know and obey thy voice."

6.

KEHAMA.

The Elements

Shall sin no more against thee; whilst I speak, Already dost thou feel their power is gone. Fear not! I cannot call again the past, Fate hath made that its own; but Fate shall yield To me the future, and thy doom be fixed Meantime all power

By mine, not Yamen's will.

Whereof thy feeble spirit can be made
Participant, I give. Is there aught else
To mitigate thy lot?

ARVALAN.

Only the sight of vengeance. Give me that! Vengeance,full, worthy vengeance! not the stroke Of sudden punishment; no agony

That spends itself, and leaves the wretch at rest; But lasting, long revenge.

KEHAMA.

What, boy? is that cup sweet? Then take thy fill!