Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/98

Yet was my mind distraught for the mare, how I might dispose her,
Till of a secret cave I thought, deep dug in the mountains,
And there I placed her close, and grass I brought her and water,
And gathered stones from the hill, and sealed the cavern with boulders,
Troubled in mind, O people, and left her there, and departed,
Uttering verses of power to hide it from eyes curious.
And thus I eased my grief, and soothed my soul in its anguish.
And I passed on foot through the waste by the ways my steps had trodden.
And I sat alone with myself in the empty breadth of the desert,
And I took from my back my wallet, and shook the dust from its leather,
And loosed the buttons all, and searched its inner recesses,
And took from it a dress should serve me for disguisement,
Unguents and oil of salgham, and red beans and essalkam,
And I roasted them on the fire till they were ripe and ruddy.
And I whitened my beard with chalk, and pulled down my mustachios,