To show the Pass is clear, Bisesa stepped They know who dared the anger of Taman, She set her hand upon the carven door, And twice she turned aside and twice she wept, Hers and her pride. and the black bull Tor, Yea, twice she turned away Before the awful darkness of the door, But the third time she cried and put her palms Against the hewn stone leaves, and prayed Taman To spare Er-Heb and take her life for price. They know who watched, the doors were rent apart And closed upon Bisesa, and the rain Broke like a flood across the Valley, washed The mist away; but louder than the rain Some say that from the Unlighted Shrine she cried And others that she sang and had no fear. Howbeit, in the morning men rose up, From the crevices the grass Had thrust the altar-slabs apart, the walls Were gray with stains unclean, the roof-beams swelled And lichen veiled the Image of Taman Er-Heb beyond the Hills of Ao-Safai THE EXPLANATION LOVE and Death once ceased their strife At the Tavern of Man's Life. Called for wine, and threw-alas! Each his quiver on the grass. When the bout was o'er they found Thus it was they wrought our woe Tell me, do our masters know, Old men love while young men die? THE GIFT OF THE SEA THE dead child lay in the shroud, And the widow watched beside; And her mother slept, and the Channel swept The gale in the teeth of the tide. But the mother laughed at all. "I have lost my man in the sea, And the child is dead. Be still," she said, "What more can ye do to me?" The widow watched the dead, And the candle guttered low, And she tried to sing the Passing Song And "Mary take you now," she sang, And "Mary smooth your crib to-night," Then came a cry from the sea, But the sea-rime blinded the glass, And "Heard ye nothing, mother?" she said, "'Tis the child that waits to pass." And the nodding mother sighed. "'Tis a lambing ewe in the whin, For why should the christened soul cry out That never knew of sin?" "O feet I have held in my hand, O hands at my heart to catch, How should they know the road to go, They laid a sheet to the door, With the little quilt atop, That it might not hurt from the cold or the dirt, But the crying would not stop. The widow lifted the latch And strained her eyes to see, And opened the door on the bitter shore There was neither glimmer nor ghost, And "Heard ye nothing, mother?" she said, "'Tis crying for me in the dark.” And the nodding mother sighed: "'Tis sorrow makes ye dull; Have ye yet to learn the cry of the tern, |