Page:Oriental Sketches Dramatic Sketches and Tales.pdf/33

Where with his frugal meal content,
And hands of slaughter innocent,
Milk, and some vegetable root,
    The golden dal, the silvery rice,
The plantain's, or the mango's fruit,
    The Hindoo's simple wants suffice.
Oh! who that sees the meanest thing
    Endued with life, the Bramin's care,
Can fancy human suffering,
    And human sacrifices, where
'Twould be a crime to crush the snake
That sheds its venom o'er the brake?
Yet here the river's crystal flood
    With living victims is prophaned,
And here with streams of human blood
    The temple's reeking courts are stained,
While blackening o'er the fair blue skies
The smoke's polluted volumes rise,
From those impure, unhallowed fires,
    Where by a living corse's side,
In fierce and torturing pangs expires,
    Untimely doomed, the shrinking bride.