I coat with slime my pebbles;

The mud I leave on winter days

The summer drought soon trebles.

"With many a stench the air I fill,

With many an odour fetid;

And epidemics I distil

Throughout the dog-days heated.

"I churn contagion as I go,

A foul, filth-sodden river;

For tides may ebb, and tides may flow,