"
As he spake, he swept the Desert with his vision clear and calm,
And along the far horizon saw the green crest of the palm.
Man and beast, with weak steps quickened, hasted to the lonely well,
And around it, faint and panting, in a grateful tumult fell.
Many days they stayed and rested, and amidst his fervent prayer
Abdel-Hassan pondered deeply that strange bond which held him there.
Then there came an aged stranger, journeying with his caravan;
And when each had each saluted, Abdel-Hassan thus began:--
"Knowest thou this well of water? lies it on the travelled ways?"
And he answered,--"From the highway thou art distant many days.
"Where thou seest this well of water, where these thorns and
palm-trees stand,
Once the Desert swept unbroken in a waste of burning sand;
"There was neither life nor herbage, not a drop of water lay,
All along the arid valley where thou seest this well to-day.
"Sixty years have wrought their changes since a man of wealth
and pride,
With his servants and his camels, here, amidst his riches, died.
"As we journeyed o'er the Desert, dead beneath the blazing sky,
Here I saw them, beasts and masters, in a common burial lie;
"Thirty men and eighty camels did the shrouding sand infold;
And we gathered up their treasure, spices, precious stones, and gold;
"Then we heaped the sand above them, and, beneath the burning sun,
With a friendly care we finished what the winds had well begun.
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