Of pink and slashed and tasselled flesh . . .

Of pink and slashed and tasselled flesh . . .He turns

Northward his sickened sight. The desert burns

All life away. Here in the forkéd shade

Of twin-humped towering dromedaries laid,

A few gaunt folk are sleeping: fierce they seem

Even in sleep, and restless as they dream.

He would be fearful of a desert bride

As of a brown asp at his sleeping side,

Fearful of her white teeth and cunning arts.