XI.

The Lion's Hunt, in Company.

A LION, Wolf, and fox together went to hunt;

Among the hills, in quest of game, they turned their brunt.
By mutual help and aid, they hoped to make the field
Too hot for other animals not under union's shield.
Co-operating with each other, they surmised,

A heavy bag they each would make of what each prized.

'Tis true, the noble lion felt of this ashamed.

Still, he politely showed towards them his spirit tamed. A king feels inconvenienced by throngs of troops;

5 But out of kindness makes them share his warlike swoops
The sun would feel ashamed, did stars with him appear;
'Tis generous in the sun to grace the starry sphere.
'Twas God's command to Ahmed still: "With them
consult." "" 1

True, they gave no advice; no counsel did result.
Upon the balance barley's weighed, as well as gold;
But barley, thence, has not acquired gold's value told.
The spirit with the flesh is fellow-traveller now;
A dog has sometimes charge of palace-yard below.

The company, then, set out for the woods amain, 10 As followers of the lion's majesty, and train.

1 Qur'an iii. 153.

A mountain-ox, an ibex, next a hare, they took;
Since fortune smiled on them in each succeeding nook.
A lion's followers on the plain of strife and war,
Of food, by day or night, shall know no want, no bar.

Their prey they carried from the hills into the plain;
Or dead, or sorely wounded;-bleeding, or clean slain.
The wolf and fox were moved to pitch of keen desire,
To see the prey shared out with justice by their sire.
The shade of their cupidity caught Leo's eye,
He understood their confidence, their longing's dye.
Whoe'er has insight to the hearts and minds of men,
Knows at a glance what's passing under his sharp ken.
Beware, O heart, thou ever-fond one, in his sight,
Thy secret to betray,-thy wish to bring to light!
He knows it all, though ignorance he may pretend ;-
His smile is but a veil thy aim to comprehend.

The lion, having measured all their secret thought,

15

Made no remark; he knew how they could both be bought; 20
Within his breast revolved their fitting punishment:
"I'll show you, my fine fellows, what's by lion meant.
My pleasure's, for you both, what you should seek to know;
Not calculate beforehand what I may bestow.
Your every thought should but reflect my sovereign will,
And thankfully await what I may give you still.
Have pictures aught to say to guide the artist's hand?
His cunning 'tis decides what portrait shall expand.

So all your paltry surmise of my royal mind
An insult is,—an arrogance,-that must be fined.
'They who conceive an evil thing of God '1 are cursed;
And if I spare you, justice will be clean reversed.
To rid the world of scandal, I must end your lives;
Your story shall a moral point; whoe'er contrives."

1 Qur'an xlviii. 6.

25

With this he smiled again most grimly on the pair.
Trust not a lion's smile, all ye to live who care.

The riches of the world are smiles of Providence;

They make men proud, and lead them to their fate

prepense.

Through poverty and suffering we may escape

30 The trap that riches bait; and so avoid the scrape.

The lion now addressed the wolf: "Share out the spoil.

Do justice to us all. Thou'rt versed in cunning's foil.
Be thou my factor. Carve the game as may be fit.
So shalt thou honour win from all who see thy wit."
The wolf then: "Royal Sir, the mountain-ox is thine.
Thou'rt great; the ox is large and fat; let none repine.
The ibex is my share. As I, so it's the mean.
And thou, O fox, shalt have the hare.

'Tis not too lean."

The lion interposed: "Wolf! What is this thou'st said? 35 I present; and to talk of thou' and 'I,' so staid! What rubbish is a wolf, to deem himself a judge In presence of a lion, who'll soon make him budge? Come hither, ass! Thyself alone it is thou'st sold!" With this he tears the wolf to pieces, all too bold.

40

He saw the wolf had not one grain of common sense;
So stripped him of his hide, his life, his brain so dense.
Then said: "Since sight of me chased not all thought of self
From thee, death by my paw was due, thou wretched elf!
Thyself thou shouldst have vanquished in my presence
dread.

Not having done so, thou'rt now numbered with the dead."

"All perisheth, except His counsel "'s holy writ." If we're not of "His counsel," life cannot us fit.

1 Qur'an xxviii. 88,

He that will lose his life for God's sake, hath it still;
"All perisheth" hath then no power his soul to kill.
He's of th' excepted; not of those to perish doomed.
For, who's excepted, saved is he. His spring hath bloomed.
But he that, in God's court, of "me" and "thee" shall prate,
Will be cut off;-far banished from the heavenly gate.

A man once came and gaily knocked at a friend's door. The other asked: "Who's there? Is this a threshing- 45 floor?"

""Tis I," said he. "O then thou straight mayest go away. 'Tis dinner-time. Mature, not crude, must be who'd stay. Thou'rt thou? Most crude thou art; by rawness' self estranged.

By fire of trial those crude humours must be changed. 'Tis fire matures the crude. Let absence be the fire, Shall purge thee of thyself, burn out all selfish mire."

Away he went in anguish; travelled a whole year ;
Saw not his friend; so pined with yearning, anxious fear;
Matured his soul with suffering's searching throes and pains.
Then sought the door from whence he'd been repulsed, 50
again.

He knocked anew, his heart with many fears oppressed,
Lest from his lip some word unwelcome drop confessed.

Within, the question's heard: "Who knocks at my street door?"

He answered: "Thy own second self;-though all too poor."

The invitation followed: "Let myself walk in.

My cot's too small for two selves to find room therein.
The thread's not double in a needle's single eye.

As thou'rt now single, enter. Room thou'lt find. Pray, try!"

The thread and needle have relation, each to each ; 55 For needle's eye a camel's far beyond all reach. How shall a camel ever be so fine and slim

Unless long fasting his redundant flesh should skim?
The hand of God is wanted, then, to make it pass;-
The God who by His word creates both man and grass.
Impossibilities are possibles to Him;

The stubbornest is docile when His will curbs whim.
The blind from birth, the leper, e'en the dead, arise,
Whole, sound, whene'er th' Omnipotent "Come forth'

but cries.

E'en non-existence, death of death, at His command, 60 Starts into life, compelled by His supreme demand.

Recite, my friend: "Each day He's busied with a work:"1

And know, He's never idle, unemployed to lurk.

His smallest daily toil,-a work like pleasure still,Is to send forth three armies, bound to work His will. One, from the loins of spheres the elements to stir; So that all plants may vegetate, from moss to fir. One, from the wombs of mothers to earth's surface prone, That male and female may increase, not lie like stone. The third hence wends its way to sepulchre's dread bourn, 65 There to receive, at length, reward; and joy, or mourn. Leave we this theme ;-'tis endless,-never would have done.

Let's see, now, how the friends enjoyed themselves alone.

Our host invites his guest to enter, free from scorn: "Thou'rt welcome, self of mine! We're not like rose and thorn.

Our thread is single,-free from knots and tangle; done, As Be,' though duplex as to form, in sense is one."

1 Qur'ān lv. 29.