Spread a flood of yellow light.”
Bāzindah again arose upon his faithful wings, and pursued his journey; but a royal white falcon was abroad looking for prey,—a falcon which descends upon the head of its quarry, swifter than the rays of the sun, and when soaring on high he reaches heaven quicker than the sight of man.
“Attacking now, it left the thunderbolt behind,
And soared more swiftly than the chilling wind.”
For the pitiless bird had marked the pigeon for his prey, and the victim’s heart began to flutter, while his wings, paralyzed with fear, seemed to lose all power of motion.
“When on the dove the rapid falcon swoops,
The helpless quarry unresisting droops.”
In that moment of helpless terror, Bāzindah thought again of his faithful mate, and quickly resolved that could he but escape this deadly peril, he would be content at home in her downy nest. He was already beneath the claw of the falcon, when the flashing eye of an eagle fell upon them,—an eagle whose talons were so sharp that the sign of Aquila was not safe in the nest of the sky, and who, when hungry, carried off from the meadows of heaven the signs of Aries and Capricorn.
“Aries itself, through fear of him
Would gaze not on the sky,