Danced before our startled eyes,

Birds from painted Indian screens,

Beads, and shells, and dragon-flies;

Wings, and flowers, and scent, and flame,

Fans and fish and heliotrope;

Till the magic air became

Like a dream kaleidoscope.

Then he told us of a land

Far across a fairy sea;

And he waved his thin white hand

Like a flower, melodiously;

While a red and blue macaw

Perched upon his pointed head,

And as in a dream, we saw

All the curious things he said.

Tucked in tiny palanquins,

Magically swinging there,

Flowery-kirtled mandarins

Floated through the scented air;

[Pg 21]

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