The lion slumbers in his lair,

The serpent shuns the noontide glare.

But slowly wind the patient train

Of camels o’er the blasted plain,

Where they and man may brave alone

The terrors of the burning zone.

—Faint not, O pilgrims! though on high,

As a volcano, flame the sky;

Shrink not, though as a furnace glow

The dark-red seas of sand below;