Wives of a Rajah

****************************

Such! proud Bengala's King and court,

Where chief and champions brave resort,

With ladies happy, gay and free,

As fishes in Bengala's sea!

One beauty shone amid the throng,

I mark'd her nose so fair and long,

So fitted to her pretty pole,

Like a nice toad-fish in its hole.

One beauty small, amid the row,

Did like the fair Sanangin show;

None softer smil'd aid them all;

Small was her mouth, her stature small,

Her visage blended rose and pale,

Her pregnant waist a swelling sail.

Another's face look'd broad and bland,

Like pamflet floundering on the sand

Whene'er she turned her piercing stare,

She seemed alert to spring in air.

Two more I mark'd in black array,

Like the salisdick dark were they;

Their skins, their faces fair & red,

And white the flesh beneath lay hid.

These pretty fish, so blithe and brave,

To see them frisking on the wave!

Were I an angler in the sea,

These fishes were the fish for me!!

******

Ibrahim

(A merchant from the Malay countries)

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