Page:The Lusiad (Camões, tr. Mickle, 1791), Volume 2.djvu/227

Wide o'er the shore extend the warlike piles,
And all the landscape round luxurious smiles.
And now her flag to every gale unfurl'd,
She towers the empress of the eastern world:
Such are the blessings sapient kings bestow,
And from thy stream such gifts, O commerce, flow.

From that sage youth, who first reign'd king of kings,
He now who sways the tribes of India springs.
Various the tribes, all led by fables vain,
Their rites the dotage of the dreamful brain.
All, save where nature whispers modest care,
Naked they blacken in the sultry air.
The haughty nobles and the vulgar race
Never must join the conjugal embrace;
Nor may the stripling, nor the blooming maid,
Oh lost to joy, by cruel rites betray'd!
To spouse of other than their father's art,
At love's connubial shrine unite the heart:
Nor may their sons, the genius and the view
Confin'd and fetter'd, other art pursue.
Vile were the stain, and deep the foul disgrace,
Should other tribe touch one of noble race;
A thousand rites, and washings o'er and o'er,
Can scarce his tainted purity restore.
Poleas the labouring lower clans are named:
By the proud Nayres the noble rank is claimed;

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