Their cheers amazed my modesty, and more had made me vain.
“‘The sultan’s bees I’ve shepherded. I’ve hornpiped at Marseilles,
Where gulped me down, well nigh to drown, the liveliest of whales.
I’m riskiest of riskers,
But, blow my grizzled whiskers!’
I cried, ‘May jackals gnaw my bones if now Munchausen fails!’
“By night the lions roared at us. By day the simoons came
And swept across our caravan in sandy clouds of flame;
But naught dismayed our temper, or
The genial Afric emperor