“Come ye hither as friends or foes?
Whatever may your errand be,
That errand must be told to me;
For none, unless a sanctioned friend,
Can pass the line that I defend.”
This challenge touched the chieftain’s pride, and he haughtily responded that he came in friendship, to propose the marriage of his son to the Arab maiden to whom he had taken a silly fancy.
“With shame,
Possess’d of power, and wealth, and fame,
I to his silly humor bend,
And humbly seek his fate to blend