LXXVI. Among Daughters of the Desert

“Go not away!” said then the wanderer who called himself Zarathustra’s shadow, “abide with us—otherwise the old gloomy affliction might again fall upon us. Now hath that old magician given us of his worst for our good,…

The shadow asks Zarathustra not to go. He says the magician's song, the pope's tears and the kings' pretended composure show the old melancholy still lurking. He recalls an after-dinner song he once made among Oriental maidens, then takes the magician's harp and begins to sing.

THE DESERTS GROW: WOE HIM WHO DOTH THEM HIDE!

The song's title and refrain, which repeats at the end.

THE DESERTS GROW: WOE HIM WHO DOTH THEM HIDE! —Ha! Solemnly! In effect solemnly! A worthy beginning! Afric manner, solemnly! Of a lion worthy, Or perhaps of a virtuous howl-monkey— —But it’s naught to you, Ye friendly…

The shadow sings a comic, rambling song as a European sitting in a small oasis beside the maidens Dudu and Suleika. He jokes about the whale, the date and the palm-tree that has lost its other leg, then parodies a moral lion's roar. He ends by saying he cannot be other than a European.