For I had talked away his stomach-ache.
And of this epoch I need only say
I had fresh dates for dinner every day.
"But I was young. I spurned the unmanly job,
For I loved conquest, and the world lay flat
Before me like a purple praying-mat,
And all young women made my heart kebob,
Until the sheikh conceived himself disgraced.
Then I took ship from Basra—in some haste.
"We put to sea, fair sirs, a foul-faced sea