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That coiled along his path. And thus did MosesShow that Israel's God had greater powerThan those dark sons of night. But not by this aloneDid God his mighty power reveal: He changedTheir waters; every fountain, well and poolWas red with blood, and lips, all parched with thirst,Shrank back in horror from the crimson draughts.And then the worshiped Nile grew full of life:Millions of frogs swarmed from the stream—they cloggedThe pathway of the priests and filled the sacredFanes, and crowded into Pharaoh's bed, and hoppedInto his trays of bread, and slumbered in hisOvens and his pans.
Then came another plague, of loathsome vermin;They were gray and creeping things, that madeTheir very clothes alive with dark and sombreSpots—things so loathsome in the land they didSuspend the service of the temple; for no priestDared to lift his hand to any god with oneOf these upon him. And then the sky grewDark, as if a cloud were passing o'er itsChangeless blue; a buzzing sound broke o'erThe city, and the land was swarmed with flies.The murrain laid their cattle low; the hailCut off the first fruits of the Nile; the locusts,With their hungry jaws, destroyed the later crops,
