Young Ofeg's Ditties/Ditty 12

​I do not dwell behind locked doors and closed blinds; every passer-by can look through my windows—ye who have suspicion that I sit up to my neck in filth and that blowflies buzz in swarms around my head—come and see!

I shall stand on my threshold and receive ye, shall accompany ye through all my rooms, shall open all cupboards, and let ye peer into all drawers. But first ye must change your shoes and scour your hands, for no scouring has any much effect upon your kind of dirt, and I am not going to have the marks of your fingers upon my things.

Ye will find here well-polished vessels, furniture without a grain of dust, the perfume of many flowers, and rooms filled with sunshine; but ye will hear no blowflies buzz save those that always swarm in your own brains. ​Mayhap ye will point to a few flies that lie dead in the window frame, but we all sail with corpses in our freight, and flies are not the worst of corpses.

"Come to me! I fear ye not. It is ye who are the cowards, I know ye so well. I shall follow ye out into the desert, and ye shall carry naked knives in your girdles, and I alone shall only have my bare hands. I know ye; ye are like the snapping curs that dare to bite my heels but slink away like cowards with their tails between their legs if one fix one's eyes upon them. So much ye will dare do—stick a knife in me if I inadvertently turn my back on ye; but if I look into your eyes ye slink away with hanging head. I know ye,—ye are cowards."