And strange sweet herbs—soft musty fragrances—

Hung swinging from the beams about her head,

Taka withdrew. Her wide eyes opened wide,

And, lightly folded on her golden breast,

Her two hands lay like flowers.

In the light

Bright as a sun god sat Malua listening

With greatest reverence to the aged man,

20

Who spoke to him of ancient, long dead things

While he displayed his wealth of burnished cups

Out of the splendid eld. "My son," he said,

"Yours is dim future, mine the deathless past;

Heroes have died for me and yet shall die,

And all the glory of the virgin earth

Yields up its sweets to me, for now I rest

And stretch my withered sinews in the sun

And wait for peaceful death; because your lips

Are innocent, and dawn is in your eyes,

I give you of my store the fairest treasure.

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