it chanced that allah, looking round,

when he had made his creatures, found

half of an eagle and a pair

of extra lion legs to spare.

so, hating waste, he took some glue

and made a gryphon of the two.

but when his handiwork he eyed,

he frowned—and it was petrified,

doomed for all time to represent

impatience on a monument.

sometimes upon our path to-day

its living counterpart will stray—

columbia's eagle strutting in

an awf'ly english lion's skin,

with glass in eye and swagg'ring gait:

behold the gryphon up to date.