Then we looked at each other in silence; the looks of the others said "No."
But I thought of that challenge of Fuzla's, and made up my mind I would go,
Though I knew that the odds were against me; so, bidding the cowards turn back,
With a few of the beasts on their traces and try hard to deaden the track--
For 'twas time, it was time that I wanted--I drove the rest down to the brink,
But the brutes wouldn't take to the water; they loved life too well not to shrink.
So I took a young calf from its mother--'twas cruel, but what did I reck?
And butchered the brute with my hanger, and fastened my pug round its neck,
Then I dragged it right into the water, and buoyed it up well round the throat
With a bundle of grasses and reeds that would keep the dead body afloat.