Niloiya saith,
“Sir, was that all that ye went forth upon?”
The master, he replieth, “Ay, at first,
That same was all; but many days went by,
While I did reason with my heart and hope
For more, and struggle to remain, and think. 
‘Let me be certain’; and so think again,
’The counsel is but dark; would I had more! 
When I have more to guide me, I will go,’
And afterward, when reasoned on too much,
It seemed remoter, then I only said,
‘O, would I had the same again’; and still
I had it not.

“Then at the last I cried,
’If the unseen be silent, I will speak
And certify my meaning to myself. 
Say that He spoke, then He will make that good
Which He hath spoken.  Therefore it were best
To go, and do His bidding.  All the earth
Shall hear the judgment so, and none may cry
When the doom falls, “Thou God art hard on us;
We knew not Thou wert angry.  O! we are lost,
Only for lack of being warned.”

“’But say
That He spoke not, and merely it befell
That I being weary had a dream.  Why, so
He could not suffer damage; when the time
Was past, and that I threatened had not come,
Men would cry out on me, haply me kill,
For troubling their content.  They would not swear,
“God, that did send this man, is proved untrue,”
But rather, “Let him die; he lied to us;
God never sent him.”  Only Thou, great King,
Knowest if Thou didst speak or no.  I leave
The matter here.  If Thou wilt speak again,
I go in gladness; if Thou wilt not speak,
Nay, if Thou never didst, I not the less
Shall go, because I have believed, what time
I seemed to hear Thee, and the going stands
With memory of believing,’ Then I washed,
And did array me in the sacred gown,
And take a lamb.”

“Ay, sir,” Niloiya sighed,
“I following, and I knew not anything
Till, the young lamb asleep in thy two arms,
We, moving up among the silent hills,
Paused in a grove to rest; and many slaves
Came near to make obeisance, and to bring
Wood for the sacrifice, and turf and fire. 
Then in their hearing thou didst say to me,
’Behold, I know thy good fidelity,
And theirs that are about us; they would guard
The mountain passes, if it were my will
Awhile to leave thee’; and the pygmies laughed
For joy, that thou wouldst trust inferior things;
And put their heads down, as their manner is,
To touch our feet.  They laughed, but sore I wept;
Sir, I could weep now; ye did ill to go
If that was all your bidding; I had thought
God drave thee, and thou couldst not choose but go.”

Then said the son of Lamech, “Afterward,
When I had left thee, He whom I had served
Met with me in the visions of the night,
To comfort me for that I had withdrawn
From thy dear company.  He sware to me
That no man should molest thee, no, nor touch
The bordering of mine outmost field.  I say,
When I obeyed, He made His matters plain. 
With whom could I have left thee, but with them,
Born in thy mother’s house, and bound thy slaves?”