THE GOD AND THE BAYADERE.
AN INDIAN LEGEND.
[This very fine ballad was also first given in the Horen.]
Mahadeva,[1] Lord of earth,
For the sixth time comes below,
As a man of mortal birth,—
Like him, feeling joy and woe.
Hither loves he to repair.
And his power behind to leave;
If to punish or to spare,
Men as man he'd fain perceive.
And when he the town as a traveller hath seen,
Observing the mighty, regarding the mean,
He quits it, to go on his journey, at eve.
He was leaving now the place,
When an outcast met his eyes,—
Fair in form, with painted face,—
Where some straggling dwellings rise,
"Maiden, hail!"—"Thanks! welcome here!
Stay!—I'll join thee in the road."—
"Who art thou?"—"A Bayadere,
And this house is love's abode."
The cymbal she hastens to play for the dance,
Well skilled in its mazes the sight to entrance,
Then by her with grace is the nosegay bestowed.
Then she draws him, as in play,
O'er the threshold eagerly:
"Beauteous stranger, light as day,
Thou shalt soon this cottage see.
- ↑ One of the numerous names of Seeva the destroyer,—the great god of the Brahmins.
