And, paled beneath the muttered rhyme,
Grew faint the pausing Moon.

There, while the sparr'd, and dropping caves
Murmured, as from their depth were called
New Shapes released from former graves,
And the earth's dreader beings--thralled
To grosser ether, by the Power
And the dark Rulers of the Hour!

While Nature sickened into dearth,

The swift winds fell upon the waves With Fear struck dead; and Silence palled The torpor of the tomb-like earth;There, by their rocky homes, the Seers Of the Dark Wisdom lonely sate, And from no human oracle,

Nor Druid shade, or Delphic cell, But from the arch untrodden spheres Drew forth the voice of Fate!

Ye whom the Magian spell'd of old,

The orbed and glorious Thrones of Heaven, Will ye in truth no more unfold

The lore to Earth's grey Fathers given?
What wonderous arts that pierce the deep
Of Time, and from slow Nature win
Her secrets, aye, her empire; sleep

Your hush'd and hoarding shrines within!

And still we gaze, and gaze, and yearn,

And, with mysterious pinings, feel The soul-perchance your offspring---burn For what your voices can reveal !Mute-mute--ye from your height survey Our longings vague, our visions vain; And, drawn to earth, we turn away, And sicken to ourselves again.

Still linger in the vast abode,

Where once the Magian learning glowed Fond dreamers wild and self-deceiving, Feeding strange thoughts in loneliness; And, in one empty science, weaving

The threads of each unhallowed guess. Gaunt Fast and sternest Penance joined To the great AwE, which is the soul Or demon of all solitude,

Darken the fancies of their mind

Into a grim and gathering mood,
Till madness blackens o'er the whole.

Such is the stuff from which is made
The mould of those in half-lit climes,

Whom hooded millions have obeyed,

Drunk with the lust of fire and scathe,
And mailed to mercy by a faith,

That sprung from Phrensy's densest shade,

A madness modell'd to a trade,
And grown a creed by crimes!

To one of these wild seers the Twins
Are bound, and ere the earliest ray
Of the New Moon* her reign begins,
Behold them on their unwatch'd way.

They pass'd along by the Menam's side,
With its floating streets on the twilight tide,
And laughter and voices echoed afar

From the idle groups in the gilt bazaar;

But the clear smooth note 'mid the din they distinguish, Of the cunning Chinese who are cheating the English.

They have left the city behind them now;

And, along the gladden'd ground,

There stealeth a scent from each purple bough,
In the thousand orchards round.‡

O'er the thin, frail plank, that the deep canal
Bridges, they gliding go;

*The reader will bear in mind, that both in the Boudhic and Hindoo superstitions, the time of the new moon is one of peculiar and mystic

power.

"On each side of the river (Menam) there was a row of floating habitations resting on rafts of bamboo moored to the shore. These appeared the neatest and best description of buildings; they were occupied by good Chinese shops." --Crauford's Embassy to Siam, p. 79.

Bancok is surrounded by orchards.

And the maw of the crocodile waits their fall,
As he watcheth them from below.

For two-and-twenty comely fanes

In sight, the wealth of the town bespeak ;
But the purse of the burgher-man never contains
Enough for a bridge o'er a single creek.*

The night hath advanced; and the sharp, shrill cry
Of the gecko† breaks forth from the herbage dark ;
And out, o'er the hush of the breathless sky,
Sweeps the Moon in her stately bark.
They see (in Siam a frequent sight-

A drollish sort of a constitution hers!)

A robber, who should have been hang'd that night,
Walking coolly off with his executioners.

*"The town (Bancok) is built on a rich tract, &c., intersected by numerous creeks and canals. We had to pass under a bridge, which, after the profusion of expense which we had lately witnessed in the temples, afforded a surprising example of the stupid inattention of a despotic government and a superstitious people, to all objects of public convenience and utility: the value of a very few of the brass images which we saw yesterday, would have been sufficient to build a noble bridge at this place, where it was so much required; but the one which we now saw, consisted of a single plank, and was elevated to the giddy height of at least thirty feet. We proceeded in all about five miles. In our route, we counted no less than twenty-two temples."-Crauford's Embassy, 127-130.

† A sort of lizard of nocturnal habits-made on purpose to disturb Captain Crauford at night.

"A celebrated gang robber, whose apprehension had cost the Siamese government a great deal of trouble, and who was placed in charge of the

In the heart of the plain they have past, and there

The moon on a temple shone,

And they note a Chinese with his braided hair,

By some embers employ'd alone :
He was stirring up the bones of his sire,
With a tool like a gardener's prong;

He had burnt him that day by a famous fire,
And was closing his task with a cheerful song.*

They have gone many miles since the night begun,
And the mystic moon to her height hath won.
They pause by the jaws of a tangled wood,
For gloomily there the shadows brood,

And they thought how the tigers in search of food
From the distant forest had lately strayed,

-And they looked on each other, and mutely prayed.

Prah-klang, took this opportunity to effect his escape. The mode in which he accomplished this, afforded some insight into the character of the servants of the Siamese government. The robber seduced the whole guard, and walked off with them; thus not only effecting his own escape. but taking with him an armed and organized body of depredators." -Crauford's Embassy, p. 176.

Returning home one day from an excursion on the Menam, my attention was attracted by observing a Chinese all alone stirring up some embers within the enclosures of a temple, with an instrument resembling a pitchfork. On landing, we found that he was completing the funeral rites of some relative. He was stirring the fire to complete the destruction of some of the larger bones, and was either cheering or consoling himself with a song !"-Crauford's Embassy, p. 450.