BY R.J.H.
Sleep on, my child, in peaceful rest,
While lovely visions round thee play;
No care or grief has touched thy breast,
Thy life is yet a cloudless day.
Far distant is my childhood's home—
No mother's smiles—no father's care!
Oh! how I'd love again to roam,
Where once my little playmates were!
Sleep on, thou hast not felt the chain;
But though 'tis yet unmingled joy,
I may not see those smiles again,
Nor clasp thee to my breast, my boy.
And must I see thee toil and bleed!
Thy manly soul in fetters tied;
'Twill wring thy mother's heart indeed—
Oh! would to God that I had died!
That soul God's own bright image bears—
But oh! no tongue thy woes can tell;
Thy lot is cast in blood and tears,
And soon these lips must say—farewell!
ZAZA—THE FEMALE SLAVE.
Words by Miss Ball. Music by G.W.C.
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O my country, my country! how long I for thee,
Far over the mountain, far over the sea.
Where the sweet Joliba kisses the shore,
Say, shall I wander by thee never more?
Where the sweet Joliba kisses the shore,
Say, shall I wander by thee never more?
O my country, my country! how long I for thee,
Far over the mountain, far over the sea.
Say, O fond Zurima,
Where dost thou stay?
Say, doth another
List to thy sweet lay?
Say, doth the orange still
Bloom near our cot?
Zurima, Zurima,
Am I forgot?
O, my country, my country! how long I for thee,
Far over the mountain, far over the sea.
Under the baobab
Oft have I slept,
Fanned by sweet breezes
That over me swept.
Often in dreams
Do my weary limbs lay
'Neath the same baobab,
Far, far away,
O my country, my country, how long I for thee,
Far over the mountain, far over the sea.
O for the breath
Of our own waving palm,
Here, as I languish,
My spirit to calm—
O for a draught
From our own cooling lake,
Brought by sweet mother,
My spirit to wake.
O my country, my country, how long I for thee,
Far over the mountain, far over the sea.