Narrative and Legendary Poems: Among the Hills and Others eBook

At length, in the low light of a spent day,
The towers of Ecbatana far away
Rose on the desert’s rim; and Nathan, faint
And footsore, pausing where for some dead saint
The faith of Islam reared a domed tomb,
Saw some one kneeling in the shadow, whom
He greeted kindly:  “May the Holy One
Answer thy prayers, O stranger!” Whereupon
The shape stood up with a loud cry, and then,
Clasped in each other’s arms, the two gray men
Wept, praising Him whose gracious providence
Made their paths one.  But straightway, as the sense
Of his transgression smote him, Nathan tore
Himself away:  “O friend beloved, no more
Worthy am I to touch thee, for I came,
Foul from my sins, to tell thee all my shame. 
Haply thy prayers, since naught availeth mine,
May purge my soul, and make it white like thine. 
Pity me, O Ben Isaac, I have sinned!”

Awestruck Ben Isaac stood.  The desert wind
Blew his long mantle backward, laying bare
The mournful secret of his shirt of hair. 
“I too, O friend, if not in act,” he said,
“In thought have verily sinned.  Hast thou not read,
’Better the eye should see than that desire
Should wander?’ Burning with a hidden fire
That tears and prayers quench not, I come to thee
For pity and for help, as thou to me. 
Pray for me, O my friend!” But Nathan cried,
“Pray thou for me, Ben Isaac!”

Side by side
In the low sunshine by the turban stone
They knelt; each made his brother’s woe his own,
Forgetting, in the agony and stress
Of pitying love, his claim of selfishness;
Peace, for his friend besought, his own became;
His prayers were answered in another’s name;
And, when at last they rose up to embrace,
Each saw God’s pardon in his brother’s face!

Long after, when his headstone gathered moss, Traced on the targum-marge of Onkelos In Rabbi Nathan’s hand these words were read:  “Hope not the cure of sin till Self is dead; Forget it in love’s service, and the debt Thou, canst not pay the angels shall forget; Heaven’s gate is shut to him who comes alone; Save thou a soul, and it shall save thy own!” 1868.

NOREMBEGA.

Norembega, or Norimbegue, is the name given by early French fishermen and explorers to a fabulous country south of Cape Breton, first discovered by Verrazzani in 1524.  It was supposed to have a magnificent city of the same name on a great river, probably the Penobscot.  The site of this barbaric city is laid down on a map published at Antwerp in 1570.  In 1604 Champlain sailed in search of the Northern Eldorado, twenty-two leagues up the Penobscot from the Isle Haute.  He supposed the river to be that of Norembega, but wisely came to the conclusion that those travellers who told of the great city had never seen it.  He saw no evidences of anything like civilization, but mentions the finding of a cross, very old and mossy, in the woods.