128 SELECT POETRY

ANIMALS AND THEIR COUNTRIES.

O’sr Afric’s sand the tawny lion stalks ;

On Phasis’! banks the graceful pheasant walks ;

The lonely eagle builds on Kilda’s* shore :

Germania’s forests feed the tusky boar ;

From Alp to Alp the sprightly ibex bounds ;

With peaceful lowings Britain’s isle resounds ;

The Lapland peasant o’er the frozen mere*

Is drawn in sledges by the swift reindeer ;

The river-horse and scaly crocodile

Infest the reedy banks of fruitful Nile ;

The dipsas‘ hisses over Mauritania’s plain,’

And seals and spouting whales sport in the northern
main.°

Barbauld.

 

THE NEGRO BOY.’

WHEN avarice enslaves the mind,
‘And selfish views alone bear sway,
Man turns a savage to his kind,
And blood and rapine mark his way.
Alas! for this poor, simple toy,
I sold a happy negro boy.

1 Phasis—a river in Persia. * Kilda—an island of Scot-
land, the most western of the Hebrides. * Mere—a large
lake. * Dipsas—a venomous serpent, whose bite produces
intolerable thirst, 5 Mauritanta—the ancient name of
north-western Africa, now Fez and Morocco. © Main-—
main-sea-—oceane

7 An African prince, who once visited England, was asked
what he had given for his watch; he answered, “ What I
will never give again—a fine boy.”