78. _Tenebræ._ _Darkness._ A religious service commemorative of the
crucifixion. Fifteen lighted candles are put out one at a time,
symbolizing the growing darkness of the world up to the time of the
crucifixion.
"ROUND US THE WILD CREATURES"
The first interlude in _Ferishtah's Fancies_. These interludes are love
lyrics which follow the separate Fables and Fancies of the Persian
Dervish Ferishtah, and state in terms of the affections the truth
embodied in didactic or philosophical fashion in the fables. In the
first fable, "The Eagle," the Dervish observes an eagle feeding some
deserted ravens. His first inference is that men will be cared for as
the ravens, without effort of their own; later he sees that men should
be as eagles and provide for the weak. The Dervish at once seeks the
largest sphere of human usefulness with the words
"And since men congregate
In towns, not woods--to Ispahan forthwith!"
The lyric protests against the temptation to self-centered seclusion on
the part of those who are entirely satisfied in each other's love.