What Shall I Think?
Mid drinking-vessels, too, of tarnished gold,
And skins of Kashmir goats with silken fleeces.
And skins of Kashmir goats with silken fleeces.
A Brahmin gray
Timidly stepped into the conqueror's way.
His small head stuck absurdly out
From his great cap with silver fringed about
Like a potato from a silver cup.
To Shiva's altar he advanced forthright,
And, feverishly trembling, then spoke up:
"Hurl in thy wrath, O Mahmoud Khan, to-night
My body to the temple-river eels,
But tell what thought at thy brown forehead's base is
Of man, the thought that boundlessly disgraces
All manhood as thy nature it reveals!"
Timidly stepped into the conqueror's way.
His small head stuck absurdly out
From his great cap with silver fringed about
Like a potato from a silver cup.
To Shiva's altar he advanced forthright,
And, feverishly trembling, then spoke up:
"Hurl in thy wrath, O Mahmoud Khan, to-night
My body to the temple-river eels,
But tell what thought at thy brown forehead's base is
Of man, the thought that boundlessly disgraces
All manhood as thy nature it reveals!"
The chieftain smiled with aspect so appalling
That his own warriors hid their eyes before
The blow. Therewith they heard his weapon falling
With hollow sound as on a dungeon door.
Now sprang, when Shiva's form in twain was crumbled,
Out of the cloven belly far and wide
A rainbow fount of gems on every side,
Where diamonds, sapphires, pearls, and mohurs tumbled.
All of the temple's spoil, a very glut
From rajah's harem and from peasant's hut,
From widows and from orphans, there was gleaming
In open day before the robber horde.
That his own warriors hid their eyes before
The blow. Therewith they heard his weapon falling
With hollow sound as on a dungeon door.
Now sprang, when Shiva's form in twain was crumbled,
Out of the cloven belly far and wide
A rainbow fount of gems on every side,
Where diamonds, sapphires, pearls, and mohurs tumbled.
All of the temple's spoil, a very glut
From rajah's harem and from peasant's hut,
From widows and from orphans, there was gleaming
In open day before the robber horde.
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