Страница 224 из 1116

my fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave with his

upper lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open

pot; lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel-floor of the

cot. He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew

of sugar cane trash and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest

rags and tatters. She kissed the earth before him, and he raised

his head so as to see her and said, "Woe to thee! what call hadst

thou to stay away all this time? Here have been with me sundry of

the black brethren, who drank their wine and each had his young

lady, and I was not content to drink because of thine absence."

Then she, "O my lord, my heart's love and coolth of my

eyes,[FN#121] knowest thou not that I am married to my cousin

whose very look I loathe, and hate myself when in his company?