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That coiled along his path. And thus did Moses
Show that Israel's God had greater power
Than those dark sons of night.
But not by this alone
Did God his mighty power reveal : He changed
Their waters; every fountain, well and pool
Was red with blood, and lips, all parched with thirst,
Shrank back in horror from the crimson draughts.
And then the worshiped Nile grew full of life ;
Millions of frogs swarmed from the stream—they
clogged
The pathway of the priests and filled the sacred
Fanes, and crowded into Pharaoh's bed, and hopped
Into his trays of bread, and slumbered in his
Ovens and his pans.
Then came another plague, of loathsome vermin ;
They were gray and creeping things, that made
Their very clothes alive with dark and sombre
Spots—things so loathsome in the land they did
Suspend the service of the temple ; for no priest
Dared to lift his hand to any god with one
Of these upon him. And then the sky grew
Dark, as if a cloud were passing o'er its
Changeless blue; a buzzing sound broke o'er
The city, and the land was swarmed with flies.
The murrain laid their cattle low ; the hail
Cut off the first fruits of the Nile ; the locusts,
With their hungry jaws, destroyed the later crops,
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