initial commit of ebook 976HEADmain

2 files changed, 7303 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/tnglw10.txt b/old/tnglw10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fad5068
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/tnglw10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7303 @@
+*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Tanglewood Tales, by Hawthorne*
+#6 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+
+Tanglewood Tales
+
+by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+July, 1997  [Etext #976]
+
+
+*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Tanglewood Tales, by Hawthorne*
+*****This file should be named tnglw10.txt or tnglw10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, tnglw11.txt.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, tnglw10a.txt.
+
+
+This extext was scanned by Dianne Bean of Chino Valley, AZ,
+with OmniPage Professional software donated by Caere.
+
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
+of the official release dates, for time for better editing.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
+up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
+in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
+a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
+look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
+new copy has at least one byte more or less.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text
+files per month:  or 400 more Etexts in 1996 for a total of 800.
+If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
+total should reach 80 billion Etexts.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by the December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only 10% of the present number of computer users.  2001
+should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it
+will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001.
+
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+
+All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
+tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.  (CMU = Carnegie-
+Mellon University).
+
+For these and other matters, please mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg
+P. O. Box  2782
+Champaign, IL 61825
+
+When all other email fails try our Executive Director:
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email
+(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail).
+
+******
+If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please
+FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives:
+[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type]
+
+ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu
+login:  anonymous
+password:  your@login
+cd etext/etext90 through /etext96
+or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information]
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET INDEX?00.GUT
+for a list of books
+and
+GET NEW GUT for general information
+and
+MGET GUT* for newsletters.
+
+**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
+(Three Pages)
+
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
+tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
+Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
+Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project").  Among other
+things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
+     University" within the 60 days following each
+     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
+     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
+scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
+free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
+you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
+Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+This extext was scanned by Dianne Bean of Chino Valley, AZ,
+with OmniPage Professional software donated by Caere.
+
+
+
+
+
+TANGLEWOOD TALES by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+
+
+THE WAYSIDE. INTRODUCTORY.
+
+A short time ago, I was favored with a flying visit from my
+young friend Eustace Bright, whom I had not before met with
+since quitting the breezy mountains of Berkshire. It being the
+winter vacation at his college, Eustace was allowing himself a
+little relaxation, in the hope, he told me, of repairing the
+inroads which severe application to study had made upon his
+health; and I was happy to conclude, from the excellent
+physical condition in which I saw him, that the remedy had
+already been attended with very desirable success. He had now
+run up from Boston by the noon train, partly impelled by the
+friendly regard with which he is pleased to honor me, and
+partly, as I soon found, on a matter of literary business.
+
+It delighted me to receive Mr. Bright, for the first time,
+under a roof, though a very humble one, which I could really
+call my own. Nor did I fail (as is the custom of landed
+proprietors all about the world) to parade the poor fellow up
+and down over my half a dozen acres; secretly rejoicing,
+nevertheless, that the disarray of the inclement season, and
+particularly the six inches of snow then upon the ground,
+prevented him from observing the ragged neglect of soil and
+shrubbery into which the place had lapsed. It was idle,
+however, to imagine that an airy guest from Monument Mountain,
+Bald Summit, and old Graylock, shaggy with primeval forests,
+could see anything to admire in my poor little hillside, with
+its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees. Eustace very
+frankly called the view from my hill top tame; and so, no
+doubt, it was, after rough, broken, rugged, headlong Berkshire,
+and especially the northern parts of the county, with which his
+college residence had made him familiar. But to me there is a
+peculiar, quiet charm in these broad meadows and gentle
+eminences. They are better than mountains, because they do not
+stamp and stereotype themselves into the brain, and thus grow
+wearisome with the same strong impression, repeated day after
+day. A few summer weeks among mountains, a lifetime among green
+meadows and placid slopes, with outlines forever new, because
+continually fading out of the memory--such would be my sober
+choice.
+
+I doubt whether Eustace did not internally pronounce the whole
+thing a bore, until I led him to my predecessor's little
+ruined, rustic summer house, midway on the hillside. It is a
+mere skeleton of slender, decaying tree trunks, with neither
+walls nor a roof; nothing but a tracery of branches and twigs,
+which the next wintry blast will be very likely to scatter in
+fragments along the terrace. It looks, and is, as evanescent as
+a dream; and yet, in its rustic network of boughs, it has
+somehow enclosed a hint of spiritual beauty, and has become a
+true emblem of the subtile and ethereal mind that planned it. I
+made Eustace Bright sit down on a snow bank, which had heaped
+itself over the mossy seat, and gazing through the arched
+windows opposite, he acknowledged that the scene at once grew
+picturesque.
+
+"Simple as it looks," said he, "this little edifice seems to be
+the work of magic. It is full of suggestiveness, and, in its
+way, is as good as a cathedral. Ah, it would be just the spot
+for one to sit in, of a summer afternoon, and tell the children
+some more of those wild stories from the classic myths!"
+
+"It would, indeed," answered I. "The summer house itself, so
+airy and so broken, is like one of those old tales, imperfectly
+remembered; and these living branches of the Baldwin apple
+tree, thrusting so rudely in, are like your unwarrantable
+interpolations. But, by the by, have you added any more legends
+to the series, since the publication of the 'Wonder-Book'?"
+
+"Many more," said Eustace; "Primrose, Periwinkle, and the rest
+of them, allow me no comfort of my life unless I tell them a
+story every day or two. I have run away from home partly to
+escape the importunity of these little wretches! But I have
+written out six of the new stories, and have brought them for
+you to look over."
+
+"Are they as good as the first?" I inquired.
+
+"Better chosen, and better handled," replied Eustace Bright.
+"You will say so when you read them."
+
+"Possibly not," I remarked. "I know from my own experience,
+that an author's last work is always his best one, in his own
+estimate, until it quite loses the red heat of composition.
+After that, it falls into its true place, quietly enough. But
+let us adjourn to my study, and examine these new stories. It
+would hardly be doing yourself justice, were you to bring me
+acquainted with them, sitting here on this snow bank!"
+
+So we descended the hill to my small, old cottage, and shut
+ourselves up in the south-eastern room, where the sunshine
+comes in, warmly and brightly, through the better half of a
+winter's day. Eustace put his bundle of manuscript into my
+hands; and I skimmed through it pretty rapidly, trying to find
+out its merits and demerits by the touch of my fingers, as a
+veteran story-teller ought to know how to do.
+
+It will be remembered that Mr. Bright condescended to avail
+himself of my literary experience by constituting me editor of
+the "Wonder-Book." As he had no reason to complain of the
+reception of that erudite work by the public, he was now
+disposed to retain me in a similar position with respect to the
+present volume, which he entitled TANGLEWOOD TALES. Not, as
+Eustace hinted, that there was any real necessity for my
+services as introducer, inasmuch as his own name had become
+established in some good degree of favor with the literary
+world. But the connection with myself, he was kind enough to
+say, had been highly agreeable; nor was he by any means
+desirous, as most people are, of kicking away the ladder that
+had perhaps helped him to reach his present elevation. My young
+friend was willing, in short, that the fresh verdure of his
+growing reputation should spread over my straggling and
+half-naked boughs; even as I have sometimes thought of training
+a vine, with its broad leafiness, and purple fruitage, over the
+worm-eaten posts and rafters of the rustic summer house. I was
+not insensible to the advantages of his proposal, and gladly
+assured him of my acceptance.
+
+Merely from the title of the stories I saw at once that the
+subjects were not less rich than those of the former volume;
+nor did I at all doubt that Mr. Bright's audacity (so far as
+that endowment might avail) had enabled him to take full
+advantage of whatever capabilities they offered. Yet, in spite
+of my experience of his free way of handling them, I did not
+quite see, I confess, how he could have obviated all the
+difficulties in the way of rendering them presentable to
+children. These old legends, so brimming over with everything
+that is most abhorrent to our Christianized moral sense some of
+them so hideous, others so melancholy and miserable, amid which
+the Greek tragedians sought their themes, and moulded them into
+the sternest forms of grief that ever the world saw; was such
+material the stuff that children's playthings should be made
+of! How were they to be purified? How was the blessed sunshine
+to be thrown into them?
+
+But Eustace told me that these myths were the most singular
+things in the world, and that he was invariably astonished,
+whenever he began to relate one, by the readiness with which it
+adapted itself to the childish purity of his auditors. The
+objectionable characteristics seem to be a parasitical growth,
+having no essential connection with the original fable. They
+fall away, and are thought of no more, the instant he puts his
+imagination in sympathy with the innocent little circle, whose
+wide-open eyes are fixed so eagerly upon him. Thus the stories
+(not by any strained effort of the narrator's, but in harmony
+with their inherent germ) transform themselves, and re-assume
+the shapes which they might be supposed to possess in the pure
+childhood of the world. When the first poet or romancer told
+these marvellous legends (such is Eustace Bright's opinion), it
+was still the Golden Age. Evil had never yet existed; and
+sorrow, misfortune, crime, were mere shadows which the mind
+fancifully created for itself, as a shelter against too sunny
+realities; or, at most, but prophetic dreams to which the
+dreamer himself did not yield a waking credence. Children are
+now the only representatives of the men and women of that happy
+era; and therefore it is that we must raise the intellect and
+fancy to the level of childhood, in order to re-create the
+original myths.
+
+I let the youthful author talk as much and as extravagantly as
+he pleased, and was glad to see him commencing life with such
+confidence in himself and his performances. A few years will do
+all that is necessary towards showing him the truth in both
+respects. Meanwhile, it is but right to say, he does really
+appear to have overcome the moral objections against these
+fables, although at the expense of such liberties with their
+structure as must be left to plead their own excuse, without
+any help from me. Indeed, except that there was a necessity for
+it--and that the inner life of the legends cannot be come at
+save by making them entirely one's own property--there is no
+defense to be made.
+
+Eustace informed me that he had told his stories to the
+children in various situations--in the woods, on the shore of
+the lake, in the dell of Shadow Brook, in the playroom, at
+Tanglewood fireside, and in a magnificent palace of snow, with
+ice windows, which he helped his little friends to build. His
+auditors were even more delighted with the contents of the
+present volume than with the specimens which have already been
+given to the world. The classically learned Mr. Pringle, too,
+had listened to two or three of the tales, and censured them
+even more bitterly than he did THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES; so
+that, what with praise, and what with criticism, Eustace Bright
+thinks that there is good hope of at least as much success with
+the public as in the case of the "WonderBook."
+
+I made all sorts of inquiries about the children, not doubting
+that there would be great eagerness to hear of their welfare,
+among some good little folks who have written to me, to ask for
+another volume of myths. They are all, I am happy to say
+(unless we except Clover), in excellent health and spirits.
+Primrose is now almost a young lady, and, Eustace tells me, is
+just as saucy as ever. She pretends to consider herself quite
+beyond the age to be interested by such idle stories as these;
+but, for all that, whenever a story is to be told, Primrose
+never fails to be one of the listeners, and to make fun of it
+when finished. Periwinkle is very much grown, and is expected
+to shut up her baby house and throw away her doll in a month or
+two more. Sweet Fern has learned to read and write, and has put
+on a jacket and pair of pantaloons--all of which improvements I
+am sorry for. Squash Blossom, Blue Eye, Plantain, and Buttercup
+have had the scarlet fever, but came easily through it.
+Huckleberry, Milkweed, and Dandelion were attacked with the
+whooping cough, but bore it bravely, and kept out of doors
+whenever the sun shone. Cowslip, during the autumn, had either
+the measles, or some eruption that looked very much like it,
+but was hardly sick a day. Poor Clover has been a good deal
+troubled with her second teeth, which have made her meagre in
+aspect and rather fractious in temper; nor, even when she
+smiles, is the matter much mended, since it discloses a gap
+just within her lips, almost as wide as the barn door. But all
+this will pass over, and it is predicted that she will turn out
+a very pretty girl.
+
+As for Mr. Bright himself, he is now in his senior year at
+Williams College, and has a prospect of graduating with some
+degree of honorable distinction at the next Commencement. In
+his oration for the bachelor's degree, he gives me to
+understand, he will treat of the classical myths, viewed in the
+aspect of baby stories, and has a great mind to discuss the
+expediency of using up the whole of ancient history, for the
+same purpose. I do not know what he means to do with himself
+after leaving college, but trust that, by dabbling so early
+with the dangerous and seductive business of authorship, he
+will not bc tempted to become an author by profession. If so I
+shall be very sorry for the little that I have had to do with
+the matter, in encouraging these first beginnings.
+
+I wish there were any likelihood of my soon seeing Primrose,
+Periwinkle, Dandelion, Sweet Fern, Clover Plantain,
+Huckleberry, Milkweed, Cowslip, Buttercup, Blue Eye, and Squash
+Blossom again. But as I do not know when I shall re-visit
+Tanglewood, and as Eustace Bright probably will not ask me to
+edit a third "WonderBook," the public of little folks must not
+expect to hear any more about those dear children from me.
+Heaven bless them, and everybody else, whether grown people or
+children!
+
+
+
+THE MINOTAUR.
+
+In the old city of Troezene, at the foot of a lofty mountain,
+there lived, a very long time ago, a little boy named Theseus.
+His grandfather, King Pittheus, was the sovereign of that
+country, and was reckoned a very wise man; so that Theseus,
+being brought up in the royal palace, and being naturally a
+bright lad, could hardly fail of profiting by the old king's
+instructions. His mother's name was Aethra. As for his father,
+the boy had never seen him. But, from his earliest remembrance,
+Aethra used to go with little Theseus into a wood, and sit down
+upon a moss-grown rock, which was deeply sunken into the earth.
+Here she often talked with her son about his father, and said
+that he was called Aegeus, and that he was a great king, and
+ruled over Attica, and dwelt at Athens, which was as famous a
+city as any in the world. Theseus was very fond of hearing
+about King Aegeus, and often asked his good mother Aethra why
+he did not come and live with them at Troezene.
+
+"Ah, my dear son," answered Aethra, with a sigh, "a monarch has
+his people to take care of. The men and women over whom he
+rules are in the place of children to him; and he can seldom
+spare time to love his own children as other parents do. Your
+father will never be able to leave his kingdom for the sake of
+seeing his little boy."
+
+"Well, but, dear mother," asked the boy, "why cannot I go to
+this famous city of Athens, and tell King Aegeus that I am his
+son?"
+
+"That may happen by and by," said Aethra. "Be patient, and we
+shall see. You are not yet big and strong enough to set out on
+such an errand."
+
+"And how soon shall I be strong enough?" Theseus persisted in
+inquiring.
+
+"You are but a tiny boy as yet," replied his mother. "See if
+you can lift this rock on which we are sitting?"
+
+The little fellow had a great opinion of his own strength. So,
+grasping the rough protuberances of the rock, he tugged and
+toiled amain, and got himself quite out of breath, without
+being able to stir the heavy stone. It seemed to be rooted into
+the ground. No wonder he could not move it; for it would have
+taken all the force of a very strong man to lift it out of its
+earthy bed.
+
+His mother stood looking on, with a sad kind of a smile on her
+lips and in her eyes, to see the zealous and yet puny efforts
+of her little boy. She could not help being sorrowful at
+finding him already so impatient to begin his adventures in the
+world.
+
+"You see how it is, my dear Theseus," said she. "You must
+possess far more strength than now before I can trust you to go
+to Athens, and tell King Aegeus that you are his son. But when
+you can lift this rock, and show me what is hidden beneath it,
+I promise you my permission to depart."
+
+Often and often, after this, did Theseus ask his mother whether
+it was yet time for him to go to Athens; and still his mother
+pointed to the rock, and told him that, for years to come, he
+could not be strong enough to move it. And again and again the
+rosy-checked and curly-headed boy would tug and strain at the
+huge mass of stone, striving, child as he was, to do what a
+giant could hardly have done without taking both of his great
+hands to the task. Meanwhile the rock seemed to be sinking
+farther and farther into the ground. The moss grew over it
+thicker and thicker, until at last it looked almost like a soft
+green seat, with only a few gray knobs of granite peeping out.
+The overhanging trees, also, shed their brown leaves upon It,
+as often as the autumn came; and at its base grew ferns and
+wild flowers, some of which crept quite over its surface. To
+all appearance, the rock was as firmly fastened as any other
+portion of the earth's substance.
+
+But, difficult as the matter looked, Theseus was now growing up
+to be such a vigorous youth, that, in his own opinion, the time
+would quickly come when he might hope to get the upper hand of
+this ponderous lump of stone.
+
+"Mother, I do believe it has started!" cried he, after one of
+his attempts. "The earth around it is certainly a little
+cracked!"
+
+"No, no, child!" his mother hastily answered. "It is not
+possible you can have moved it, such a boy as you still are!"
+
+Nor would she be convinced, although Theseus showed her the
+place where he fancied that the stem of a flower had been
+partly uprooted by the movement of the rock. But Aethra sighed,
+and looked disquieted; for, no doubt, she began to be conscious
+that her son was no longer a child, and that, in a little while
+hence, she must send him forth among the perils and troubles of
+the world.
+
+It was not more than a year afterwards when they were again
+sitting on the moss-covered stone. Aethra had once more told
+him the oft-repeated story of his father, and how gladly he
+would receive Theseus at his stately palace, and how he would
+present him to his courtiers and the people, and tell them that
+here was the heir of his dominions. The eyes of Theseus glowed
+with enthusiasm, and he would hardly sit still to hear his
+mother speak.
+
+"Dear mother Aethra," he exclaimed, "I never felt half so
+strong as now! I am no longer a child, nor a boy, nor a mere
+youth! I feel myself a man! It is now time to make one earnest
+trial to remove the stone."
+
+"Ah, my dearest Theseus," replied his mother "not yet! not
+yet!"
+
+"Yes, mother," said he, resolutely, "the time has come!"
+
+Then Theseus bent himself in good earnest to the task, and
+strained every sinew, with manly strength and resolution. He
+put his whole brave heart into the effort. He wrestled with the
+big and sluggish stone, as if it had been a living enemy. He
+heaved, he lifted, he resolved now to succeed, or else to
+perish there, and let the rock be his monument forever! Aethra
+stood gazing at him, and clasped her hands, partly with a
+mother's pride, and partly with a mother's sorrow. The great
+rock stirred! Yes, it was raised slowly from the bedded moss
+and earth, uprooting the shrubs and flowers along with it, and
+was turned upon its side. Theseus had conquered!
+
+While taking breath, he looked joyfully at his mother, and she
+smiled upon him through her tears.
+
+"Yes, Theseus," she said, "the time has come, and you must stay
+no longer at my side! See what King Aegeus, your royal father,
+left for you beneath the stone, when he lifted it in his mighty
+arms, and laid it on the spot whence you have now removed it."
+
+Theseus looked, and saw that the rock had been placed over
+another slab of stone, containing a cavity within it; so that
+it somewhat resembled a roughly-made chest or coffer, of which
+the upper mass had served as the lid. Within the cavity lay a
+sword, with a golden hilt, and a pair of sandals.
+
+"That was your father's sword," said Aethra, "and those were
+his sandals. When he went to be king of Athens, he bade me
+treat you as a child until you should prove yourself a man by
+lifting this heavy stone. That task being accomplished, you are
+to put on his sandals, in order to follow in your father's
+footsteps, and to gird on his sword, so that you may fight
+giants and dragons, as King Aegeus did in his youth."
+
+"I will set out for Athens this very day!" cried Theseus.
+
+But his mother persuaded him to stay a day or two longer, while
+she got ready some necessary articles for his journey. When his
+grandfather, the wise King Pittheus, heard that Theseus
+intended to present himself at his father's palace, he
+earnestly advised him to get on board of a vessel, and go by
+sea; because he might thus arrive within fifteen miles of
+Athens, without either fatigue or danger.
+
+"The roads are very bad by land," quoth the venerable king;
+"and they are terribly infested with robbers and monsters. A
+mere lad, like Theseus, is not fit to be trusted on such a
+perilous journey, all by himself. No, no; let him go by sea."
+
+But when Theseus heard of robbers and monsters, he pricked up
+his ears, and was so much the more eager to take the road along
+which they were to be met with. On the third day, therefore, he
+bade a respectful farewell to his grandfather, thanking him for
+all his kindness; and, after affectionately embracing his
+mother, he set forth with a good many of her tears glistening
+on his cheeks, and some, if the truth must be told, that had
+gushed out of his own eyes. But he let the sun and wind dry
+them, and walked stoutly on, playing with the golden hilt of
+his sword, and taking very manly strides in his father's
+sandals.
+
+I cannot stop to tell you hardly any of the adventures that
+befell Theseus on the road to Athens. It is enough to say, that
+he quite cleared that part of the country of the robbers about
+whom King Pittheus had been so much alarmed. One of these bad
+people was named Procrustes; and he was indeed a terrible
+fellow, and had an ugly way of making fun of the poor travelers
+who happened to fall into his clutches. In his cavern he had a
+bed, on which, with great pretense of hospitality, he invited
+his guests to lie down; but, if they happened to be shorter
+than the bed, this wicked villain stretched them out by main
+force; or, if they were too tall, he lopped off their heads or
+feet, and laughed at what he had done, as an excellent joke.
+Thus, however weary a man might be, he never liked to lie in
+the bed of Procrustes. Another of these robbers, named Scinis,
+must likewise have been a very great scoundrel. He was in the
+habit of flinging his victims off a high cliff into the sea;
+and, in order to give him exactly his deserts, Theseus tossed
+him off the very same place. But if you will believe me, the
+sea would not pollute itself by receiving such a bad person
+into its bosom; neither would the earth, having once got rid of
+him, consent to take him back; so that, between the cliff and
+the sea, Scinis stuck fast in the air, which was forced to bear
+the burden of his naughtiness.
+
+After these memorable deeds, Theseus heard of an enormous sow,
+which ran wild, and was the terror of all the farmers round
+about; and, as he did not consider himself above doing any good
+thing that came in his way, he killed this monstrous creature,
+and gave the carcass to the poor people for bacon. The great
+sow had been an awful beast, while ramping about the woods and
+fields, but was a pleasant object enough when cut up into
+joints, and smoking on I know not how many dinner tables.
+
+Thus, by the time he reached his journey's end, Theseus had
+done many valiant feats with his father's golden-hilted sword,
+and had gained the renown of being one of the bravest young men
+of the day. His fame traveled faster than he did, and reached
+Athens before him. As he entered the city, he heard the
+inhabitants talking at the street corners, and saying that
+Hercules was brave, and Jason too, and Castor and Pollux
+likewise, but that Theseus, the son of their own king, would
+turn out as great a hero as the best of them. Theseus took
+longer strides on hearing this, and fancied himself sure of a
+magnificent reception at his father's court, since he came
+thither with Fame to blow her trumpet before him, and cry to
+King Aegeus, "Behold your son!"
+
+He little suspected, innocent youth that he was, that here, in
+this very Athens, where his father reigned, a greater danger
+awaited him than any which he had encountered on the road. Yet
+this was the truth. You must understand that the father of
+Theseus, though not very old in years, was almost worn out with
+the cares of government, and had thus grown aged before his
+time. His nephews, not expecting him to live a very great
+while, intended to get all the power of the kingdom into their
+own hands. But when they heard that Theseus had arrived in
+Athens, and learned what a gallant young man he was, they saw
+that he would not be at all the kind of a person to let them
+steal away his father's crown and scepter, which ought to be
+his own by right of inheritance. Thus these bad-hearted nephews
+of King Aegeus, who were the own cousins of Theseus, at once
+became his enemies. A still more dangerous enemy was Medea, the
+wicked enchantress; for she was now the king's wife, and wanted
+to give the kingdom to her son Medus, instead of letting it be
+given to the son of Aethra, whom she hated.
+
+It so happened that the king's nephews met Theseus, and found
+out who he was, just as he reached the entrance of the royal
+palace. With all their evil designs against him, they pretended
+to be their cousin's best friends, and expressed great joy at
+making his acquaintance. They proposed to him that he should
+come into the king's presence as a stranger, in order to try
+whether Aegeus would discover in the young man's features any
+likeness either to himself or his mother Aethra, and thus
+recognize him for a son. Theseus consented; for he fancied that
+his father would know him in a moment, by the love that was in
+his heart. But, while he waited at the door, the nephews ran
+and told King Aegeus that a young man had arrived in Athens,
+who, to their certain knowledge, intended to put him to death,
+and get possession of his royal crown.
+
+"And he is now waiting for admission to your majesty's
+presence," added they.
+
+"Aha!" cried the old king, on hearing this. "Why, he must be a
+very wicked young fellow indeed! Pray, what would you advise me
+to do with him? "
+
+In reply to this question, the wicked Medea put in her word. As
+I have already told you, she was a famous enchantress.
+According to some stories, she was in the habit of boiling old
+people in a large caldron, under pretense of making them young
+again; but King Aegeus, I suppose, did not fancy such an
+uncomfortable way of growing young, or perhaps was contented to
+be old, and therefore would never let himself be popped into
+the caldron. If there were time to spare from more important
+matters, I should be glad to tell you of Medea's fiery chariot,
+drawn by winged dragons, in which the enchantress used often to
+take an airing among the clouds. This chariot, in fact, was the
+vehicle that first brought her to Athens, where she had done
+nothing but mischief ever since her arrival. But these and many
+other wonders must be left untold; and it is enough to say,
+that Medea, amongst a thousand other bad things, knew how to
+prepare a poison, that was instantly fatal to whomsoever might
+so much as touch it with his lips.
+
+So, when the king asked what he should do with Theseus, this
+naughty woman had an answer ready at her tongue's end.
+
+"Leave that to me, please your majesty," she replied. "Only
+admit this evil-minded young man to your presence, treat him
+civilly, and invite him to drink a goblet of wine. Your majesty
+is well aware that I sometimes amuse myself by distilling very
+powerful medicines. Here is one of them in this small phial. As
+to what it is made of, that is one of my secrets of state. Do
+but let me put a single drop into the goblet, and let the young
+man taste it; and I will answer for it, he shall quite lay
+aside the bad designs with which he comes hither."
+
+As she said this, Medea smiled; but, for all her smiling face,
+she meant nothing less than to poison the poor innocent
+Theseus, before his father's eyes. And King Aegeus, like most
+other kings, thought any punishment mild enough for a person
+who was accused of plotting against his life. He therefore made
+little or no objection to Medea's scheme, and as soon as the
+poisonous wine was ready, gave orders that the young stranger
+should be admitted into his presence.
+
+The goblet was set on a table beside the king's throne; and a
+fly, meaning just to sip a little from the brim, immediately
+tumbled into it, dead. Observing this, Medea looked round at
+the nephews, and smiled again.
+
+When Theseus was ushered into the royal apartment, the only
+object that he seemed to behold was the white-bearded old king.
+There he sat on his magnificent throne, a dazzling crown on his
+head, and a scepter in his hand. His aspect was stately and
+majestic, although his years and infirmities weighed heavily
+upon him, as if each year were a lump of lead, and each
+infirmity a ponderous stone, and all were bundled up together,
+and laid upon his weary shoulders. The tears both of joy and
+sorrow sprang into the young man's eyes; for he thought how sad
+it was to see his dear father so infirm, and how sweet it would
+be to support him with his own youthful strength, and to cheer
+him up with the alacrity of his loving spirit. When a son takes
+a father into his warm heart it renews the old man's youth in a
+better way than by the heat of Medea's magic caldron. And this
+was what Theseus resolved to do. He could scarcely wait to see
+whether King Aegeus would recognize him, so eager was he to
+throw himself into his arms.
+
+Advancing to the foot of the throne, he attempted to make a
+little speech, which he had been thinking about, as he came up
+the stairs. But he was almost choked by a great many tender
+feelings that gushed out of his heart and swelled into his
+throat, all struggling to find utterance together. And
+therefore, unless he could have laid his full, over- brimming
+heart into the king's hand, poor Theseus knew not what to do or
+say. The cunning Medea observed what was passing in the young
+man's mind. She was more wicked at that moment than ever she
+had been before; for (and it makes me tremble to tell you of
+it) she did her worst to turn all this unspeakable love with
+which Theseus was agitated to his own ruin and destruction.
+
+"Does your majesty see his confusion?" she whispered in the
+king's ear. "He is so conscious of guilt, that he trembles and
+cannot speak. The wretch lives too long! Quick! offer him the
+wine!"
+
+Now King Aegeus had been gazing earnestly at the young
+stranger, as he drew near the throne. There was something, he
+knew not what, either in his white brow, or in the fine
+expression of his mouth, or in his beautiful and tender eyes,
+that made him indistinctly feel as if he had seen this youth
+before; as if, indeed, he had trotted him on his knee when a
+baby, and had beheld him growing to be a stalwart man, while he
+himself grew old. But Medea guessed how the king felt, and
+would not suffer him to yield to these natural sensibilities;
+although they were the voice of his deepest heart, telling him
+as plainly as it could speak, that here was our dear son, and
+Aethra's son, coming to claim him for a father. The enchantress
+again whispered in the king's ear, and compelled him, by her
+witchcraft, to see everything under a false aspect.
+
+He made up his mind, therefore, to let Theseus drink off the
+poisoned wine.
+
+"Young man," said he, "you are welcome! I am proud to show
+hospitality to so heroic a youth. Do me the favor to drink the
+contents of this goblet. It is brimming over, as you see, with
+delicious wine, such as I bestow only on those who are worthy
+of it! None is more worthy to quaff it than yourself!"
+
+So saying, King Aegeus took the golden goblet from the table,
+and was about to offer it to Theseus. But, partly through his
+infirmities, and partly because it seemed so sad a thing to
+take away this young man's life. however wicked he might be,
+and partly, no doubt, because his heart was wiser than his
+head, and quaked within him at the thought of what he was going
+to do--for all these reasons, the king's hand trembled so much
+that a great deal of the wine slopped over. In order to
+strengthen his purpose, and fearing lest the whole of the
+precious poison should be wasted, one of his nephews now
+whispered to him:
+
+"Has your Majesty any doubt of this stranger's guilt? This is
+the very sword with which he meant to slay you. How sharp, and
+bright, and terrible it is! Quick!--let him taste the wine; or
+perhaps he may do the deed even yet."
+
+At these words, Aegeus drove every thought and feeling out of
+his breast, except the one idea of how justly the young man
+deserved to be put to death. He sat erect on his throne, and
+held out the goblet of wine with a steady hand, and bent on
+Theseus a frown of kingly severity; for, after all, he had too
+noble a spirit to murder even a treacherous enemy with a
+deceitful smile upon his face.
+
+"Drink!" said he, in the stern tone with which he was wont to
+condemn a criminal to be beheaded. "You have well deserved of
+me such wine as this!"
+
+Theseus held out his hand to take the wine. But, before he
+touched it, King Aegeus trembled again. His eyes had fallen on
+the gold-hilted sword that hung at the young man's side. He
+drew back the goblet.
+
+"That sword!" he exclaimed: "how came you by it?"
+
+"It was my father's sword," replied Theseus, with a tremulous
+voice. "These were his sandals. My dear mother (her name is
+Aethra) told me his story while I was yet a little child. But
+it is only a month since I grew strong enough to lift the heavy
+stone, and take the sword and sandals from beneath it, and come
+to Athens to seek my father."
+
+"My son! my son!" cried King Aegeus, flinging away the fatal
+goblet, and tottering down from the throne to fall into the
+arms of Theseus. "Yes, these are Aethra's eyes. It is my son."
+
+I have quite forgotten what became of the king's nephews. But
+when the wicked Medea saw this new turn of affairs, she hurried
+out of the room, and going to her private chamber, lost no time
+to setting her enchantments to work. In a few moments, she
+heard a great noise of hissing snakes outside of the chamber
+window; and behold! there was her fiery chariot, and four huge
+winged serpents, wriggling and twisting in the air, flourishing
+their tails higher than the top of the palace, and all ready to
+set off on an aerial journey. Medea staid only long enough to
+take her son with her, and to steal the crown jewels, together
+with the king's best robes, and whatever other valuable things
+she could lay hands on; and getting into the chariot, she
+whipped up the snakes, and ascended high over the city.
+
+The king, hearing the hiss of the serpents, scrambled as fast
+as he could to the window, and bawled out to the abominable
+enchantress never to come back. The whole people of Athens,
+too, who had run out of doors to see this wonderful spectacle,
+set up a shout of joy at the prospect of getting rid of her.
+Medea, almost bursting with rage, uttered precisely such a hiss
+as one of her own snakes, only ten times more venomous and
+spiteful; and glaring fiercely out of the blaze of the chariot,
+she shook her hands over the multitude below, as if she were
+scattering a million of curses among them. In so doing,
+however, she unintentionally let fall about five hundred
+diamonds of the first water, together with a thousand great
+pearls, and two thousand emeralds, rubies, sapphires, opals,
+and topazes, to which she had helped herself out of the king's
+strong box. All these came pelting down, like a shower of many-
+colored hailstones, upon the heads of grown people and
+children, who forthwith gathered them up, and carried them back
+to the palace. But King Aegeus told them that they were welcome
+to the whole, and to twice as many more, if he had them, for
+the sake of his delight at finding his son, and losing the
+wicked Medea. And, indeed, if you had seen how hateful was her
+last look, as the flaming chariot flew upward, you would not
+have wondered that both king and people should think her
+departure a good riddance.
+
+And now Prince Theseus was taken into great favor by his royal
+father. The old king was never weary of having him sit beside
+him on his throne (which was quite wide enough for two), and of
+hearing him tell about his dear mother, and his childhood, and
+his many boyish efforts to lift the ponderous stone. Theseus,
+however, was much too brave and active a young man to be
+willing to spend all his time in relating things which had
+already happened. His ambition was to perform other and more
+heroic deeds, which should be better worth telling in prose and
+verse. Nor had he been long in Athens before he caught and
+chained a terrible mad bull, and made a public show of him,
+greatly to the wonder and admiration of good King Aegeus and
+his subjects. But pretty soon, he undertook an affair that made
+all his foregone adventures seem like mere boy's play. The
+occasion of it was as follows:
+
+One morning, when Prince Theseus awoke, he fancied that he must
+have had a very sorrowful dream, and that it was still running
+in his mind, even now that his eyes were opened. For it
+appeared as if the air was full of a melancholy wail; and when
+he listened more attentively, he could hear sobs, and groans,
+and screams of woe, mingled with deep, quiet sighs, which came
+from the king's palace, and from the streets, and from the
+temples, and from every habitation in the city. And all these
+mournful noises, issuing out of thousands of separate hearts,
+united themselves into one great sound of affliction, which had
+startled Theseus from slumber. He put on his clothes as quickly
+as he could (not forgetting his sandals and gold-hilted sword),
+and, hastening to the king, inquired what it all meant.
+
+"Alas! my son," quoth King Aegeus, heaving a long sigh, "here
+is a very lamentable matter in hand! This is the wofulest
+anniversary in the whole year. It is the day when we annually
+draw lots to see which of the youths and maids of Athens shall
+go to be devoured by the horrible Minotaur!"
+
+"The Minotaur!" exclaimed Prince Theseus; and like a brave
+young prince as he was, he put his hand to the hilt of his
+sword. "What kind of a monster may that be? Is it not possible,
+at the risk of one's life, to slay him?"
+
+But King Aegeus shook his venerable head, and to convince
+Theseus that it was quite a hopeless case, he gave him an
+explanation of the whole affair. It seems that in the island of
+Crete there lived a certain dreadful monster, called a
+Minotaur, which was shaped partly like a man and partly like a
+bull, and was altogether such a hideous sort of a creature that
+it is really disagreeable to think of him. If he were suffered
+to exist at all, it should have been on some desert island, or
+in the duskiness of some deep cavern, where nobody would ever
+be tormented by his abominable aspect. But King Minos, who
+reigned over Crete, laid out a vast deal of money in building a
+habitation for the Minotaur, and took great care of his health
+and comfort, merely for mischief's sake. A few years before
+this time, there had been a war between the city of Athens and
+the island of Crete, in which the Athenians were beaten, and
+compelled to beg for peace. No peace could they obtain,
+however, except on condition that they should send seven young
+men and seven maidens, every year, to be devoured by the pet
+monster of the cruel King Minos. For three years past, this
+grievous calamity had been borne. And the sobs, and groans, and
+shrieks, with which the city was now filled, were caused by the
+people's woe, because the fatal day had come again, when the
+fourteen victims were to be chosen by lot; and the old people
+feared lest their sons or daughters might be taken, and the
+youths and damsels dreaded lest they themselves might be
+destined to glut the ravenous maw of that detestable man-brute.
+
+But when Theseus heard the story, he straightened himself up,
+so that he seemed taller than ever before; and as for his face
+it was indignant, despiteful, bold, tender, and compassionate,
+all in one look.
+
+"Let the people of Athens this year draw lots for only six
+young men, instead of seven," said he, "I will myself be the
+seventh; and let the Minotaur devour me if he can!"
+
+"O my dear son," cried King Aegeus, "why should you expose
+yourself to this horrible fate? You are a royal prince, and
+have a right to hold yourself above the destinies of common
+men."
+
+"It is because I am a prince, your son, and the rightful heir
+of your kingdom, that I freely take upon me the calamity of
+your subjects," answered Theseus, " And you, my father, being
+king over these people, and answerable to Heaven for their
+welfare, are bound to sacrifice what is dearest to you, rather
+than that the son or daughter of the poorest citizen should
+come to any harm."
+
+The old king shed tears, and besought Theseus not to leave him
+desolate in his old age, more especially as he had but just
+begun to know the happiness of possessing a good and valiant
+son. Theseus, however, felt that he was in the right, and
+therefore would not give up his resolution. But he assured his
+father that he did not intend to be eaten up, unresistingly,
+like a sheep, and that, if the Minotaur devoured him, it should
+not be without a battle for his dinner. And finally, since he
+could not help it, King Aegeus consented to let him go. So a
+vessel was got ready, and rigged with black sails; and Theseus,
+with six other young men, and seven tender and beautiful
+damsels, came down to the harbor to embark. A sorrowful
+multitude accompanied them to the shore. There was the poor old
+king, too, leaning on his son's arm, and looking as if his
+single heart held all the grief of Athens.
+
+Just as Prince Theseus was going on board, his father bethought
+himself of one last word to say.
+
+"My beloved son," said he, grasping the Prince's hand, "you
+observe that the sails of this vessel are black; as indeed they
+ought to be, since it goes upon a voyage of sorrow and despair.
+Now, being weighed down with infirmities, I know not whether I
+can survive till the vessel shall return. But, as long as I do
+live, I shall creep daily to the top of yonder cliff, to watch
+if there be a sail upon the sea. And, dearest Theseus, if by
+some happy chance, you should escape the jaws of the Minotaur,
+then tear down those dismal sails, and hoist others that shall
+be bright as the sunshine. Beholding them on the horizon,
+myself and all the people will know that you are coming back
+victorious, and will welcome you with such a festal uproar as
+Athens never heard before."
+
+Theseus promised that he would do so. Then going on board, the
+mariners trimmed the vessel's black sails to the wind, which
+blew faintly off the shore, being pretty much made up of the
+sighs that everybody kept pouring forth on this melancholy
+occasion. But by and by, when they had got fairly out to sea,
+there came a stiff breeze from the north-west, and drove them
+along as merrily over the white-capped waves as if they had
+been going on the most delightful errand imaginable. And though
+it was a sad business enough, I rather question whether
+fourteen young people, without any old persons to keep them in
+order, could continue to spend the whole time of the voyage in
+being miserable. There had been some few dances upon the
+undulating deck, I suspect, and some hearty bursts of laughter,
+and other such unseasonable merriment among the victims, before
+the high blue mountains of Crete began to show themselves among
+the far-off clouds. That sight, to be sure, made them all very
+grave again.
+
+Theseus stood among the sailors, gazing eagerly towards the
+land; although, as yet, it seemed hardly more substantial than
+the clouds, amidst which the mountains were looming up. Once or
+twice, he fancied that he saw a glare of some bright object, a
+long way off, flinging a gleam across the waves.
+
+"Did you see that flash of light?" he inquired of the master of
+the vessel.
+
+"No, prince; but I have seen it before," answered the master.
+"It came from Talus, I suppose."
+
+As the breeze came fresher just then, the master was busy with
+trimming his sails, and had no more time to answer questions.
+But while the vessel flew faster and faster towards Crete,
+Theseus was astonished to behold a human figure, gigantic in
+size, which appeared to be striding, with a measured movement,
+along the margin of the island. It stepped from cliff to cliff,
+and sometimes from one headland to another, while the sea
+foamed and thundered on the shore beneath, and dashed its jets
+of spray over the giant's feet. What was still more remarkable,
+whenever the sun shone on this huge figure, it flickered and
+glimmered; its vast countenance, too, had a metallic lustre,
+and threw great flashes of splendor through the air. The folds
+of its garments, moreover, instead of waving in the wind, fell
+heavily over its limbs, as if woven of some kind of metal.
+
+The nigher the vessel came, the more Theseus wondered what this
+immense giant could be, and whether it actually had life or no.
+For, though it walked, and made other lifelike motions, there
+yet was a kind of jerk in its gait, which, together with its
+brazen aspect, caused the young prince to suspect that it was
+no true giant, but only a wonderful piece of machinery. The
+figure looked all the more terrible because it carried an
+enormous brass club on its shoulder.
+
+"What is this wonder?" Theseus asked of the master of the
+vessel, who was now at leisure to answer him.
+
+"It is Talus, the Man of Brass," said the master.
+
+"And is he a live giant, or a brazen image?" asked Theseus.
+
+"That, truly," replied the master, "is the point which has
+always perplexed me. Some say, indeed, that this Talus was
+hammered out for King Minos by Vulcan himself, the skilfullest
+of all workers in metal. But who ever saw a brazen image that
+had sense enough to walk round an island three times a day, as
+this giant walks round the island of Crete, challenging every
+vessel that comes nigh the shore? And, on the other hand, what
+living thing, unless his sinews were made of brass, would not
+be weary of marching eighteen hundred miles in the twenty-four
+hours, as Talus does, without ever sitting down to rest? He is
+a puzzler, take him how you will."
+
+Still the vessel went bounding onward; and now Theseus could
+hear the brazen clangor of the giant's footsteps, as he trod
+heavily upon the sea-beaten rocks, some of which were seen to
+crack and crumble into the foaming waves beneath his weight. As
+they approached the entrance of the port, the giant straddled
+clear across it, with a foot firmly planted on each headland,
+and uplifting his club to such a height that its butt-end was
+hidden in the cloud, he stood in that formidable posture, with
+the sun gleaming all over his metallic surface. There seemed
+nothing else to be expected but that, the next moment, he would
+fetch his great club down, slam bang, and smash the vessel into
+a thousand pieces, without heeding how many innocent people he
+might destroy; for there is seldom any mercy in a giant, you
+know, and quite as little in a piece of brass clockwork. But
+just when Theseus and his companions thought the blow was
+coming, the brazen lips unclosed themselves, and the figure
+spoke.
+
+"Whence come you, strangers?"
+
+And when the ringing voice ceased, there was just such a
+reverberation as you may have heard within a great church bell,
+for a moment or two after the stroke of the hammer.
+
+"From Athens!" shouted the master in reply.
+
+"On what errand?" thundered the Man of Brass.
+
+And he whirled his club aloft more threateningly than ever, as
+if he were about to smite them with a thunderstroke right
+amidships, because Athens, so little while ago, had been at war
+with Crete.
+
+"We bring the seven youths and the seven maidens," answered the
+master, "to be devoured by the Minotaur!"
+
+"Pass!" cried the brazen giant.
+
+That one loud word rolled all about the sky, while again there
+was a booming reverberation within the figure's breast. The
+vessel glided between the headlands of the port, and the giant
+resumed his march. In a few moments, this wondrous sentinel was
+far away, flashing in the distant sunshine, and revolving with
+immense strides round the island of Crete, as it was his
+never-ceasing task to do.
+
+No sooner had they entered the harbor than a party of the
+guards of King Minos came down to the water side, and took
+charge of the fourteen young men and damsels. Surrounded by
+these armed warriors, Prince Theseus and his companions were
+led to the king's palace, and ushered into his presence. Now,
+Minos was a stern and pitiless king. If the figure that guarded
+Crete was made of brass, then the monarch, who ruled over it,
+might be thought to have a still harder metal in his breast,
+and might have been called a man of iron. He bent his shaggy
+brows upon the poor Athenian victims. Any other mortal,
+beholding their fresh and tender beauty, and their innocent
+looks, would have felt himself sitting on thorns until he had
+made every soul of them happy by bidding them go free as the
+summer wind. But this immitigable Minos cared only to examine
+whether they were plump enough to satisfy the Minotaur's
+appetite. For my part, I wish he himself had been the only
+victim; and the monster would have found him a pretty tough
+one.
+
+One after another, King Minos called these pale, frightened
+youths and sobbing maidens to his footstool, gave them each a
+poke in the ribs with his sceptre (to try whether they were in
+good flesh or no), and dismissed them with a nod to his guards.
+But when his eyes rested on Theseus, the king looked at him
+more attentively, because his face was calm and brave.
+
+"Young man," asked he, with his stern voice, "are you not
+appalled at the certainty of being devoured by this terrible
+Minotaur?"
+
+"I have offered my life in a good cause," answered Theseus,
+"and therefore I give it freely and gladly. But thou, King
+Minos, art thou not thyself appalled, who, year after year,
+hast perpetrated this dreadful wrong, by giving seven innocent
+youths and as many maidens to be devoured by a monster? Dost
+thou not tremble, wicked king, to turn shine eyes inward on
+shine own heart? Sitting there on thy golden throne, and in thy
+robes of majesty, I tell thee to thy face, King Minos, thou art
+a more hideous monster than the Minotaur himself!"
+
+"Aha! do you think me so?" cried the king, laughing in his
+cruel way. "To-morrow, at breakfast time, you shall have an
+opportunity of judging which is the greater monster, the
+Minotaur or the king! Take them away, guards; and let this
+free-spoken youth be the Minotaur's first morsel."
+
+Near the king's throne (though I had no time to tell you so
+before) stood his daughter Ariadne. She was a beautiful and
+tender-hearted maiden, and looked at these poor doomed captives
+with very different feelings from those of the iron-breasted
+King Minos. She really wept indeed, at the idea of how much
+human happiness would be needlessly thrown away, by giving so
+many young people, in the first bloom and rose blossom of their
+lives, to be eaten up by a creature who, no doubt, would have
+preferred a fat ox, or even a large pig, to the plumpest of
+them. And when she beheld the brave, spirited figure of Prince
+Theseus bearing himself so calmly in his terrible peril, she
+grew a hundred times more pitiful than before. As the guards
+were taking him away, she flung herself at the king's feet, and
+besought him to set all the captives free, and especially this
+one young man.
+
+"Peace, foolish girl!" answered King Minos.
+
+"What hast thou to do with an affair like this? It is a matter
+of state policy, and therefore quite beyond thy weak
+comprehension. Go water thy flowers, and think no more of these
+Athenian caitiffs, whom the Minotaur shall as certainly eat up
+for breakfast as I will eat a partridge for my supper."
+
+So saying, the king looked cruel enough to devour Theseus and
+all the rest of the captives himself, had there been no
+Minotaur to save him the trouble. As he would hear not another
+word in their favor, the prisoners were now led away, and
+clapped into a dungeon, where the jailer advised them to go to
+sleep as soon as possible, because the Minotaur was in the
+habit of calling for breakfast early. The seven maiden s and
+six of the young men soon sobbed themselves to slumber. But
+Theseus was not like them. He felt conscious that he was wiser,
+and braver, and stronger than his companions, and that
+therefore he had the responsibility of all their lives upon
+him, and must consider whether there was no way to save them,
+even in this last extremity. So he kept himself awake, and
+paced to and fro across the gloomy dungeon in which they were
+shut up.
+
+Just before midnight, the door was softly unbarred, and the
+gentle Ariadne showed herself, with a torch in her hand.
+
+"Are you awake, Prince Theseus?" she whispered.
+
+"Yes," answered Theseus. "With so little time to live, I do not
+choose to waste any of it in sleep."
+
+"Then follow me," said Ariadne, "and tread softly."
+
+What had become of the jailer and the guards, Theseus never
+knew. But, however that might be, Ariadne opened all the doors,
+and led him forth from the darksome prison into the pleasant
+moonlight.
+
+"Theseus," said the maiden, "you can now get on board your
+vessel, and sail away for Athens."
+
+"No," answered the young man; "I will never leave Crete unless
+I can first slay the Minotaur, and save my poor companions, and
+deliver Athens from this cruel tribute."
+
+"I knew that this would be your resolution," said Ariadne.
+"Come, then, with me, brave Theseus. Here is your own sword,
+which the guards deprived you of. You will need it; and pray
+Heaven you may use it well."
+
+Then she led Theseus along by the hand until they came to a
+dark, shadowy grove, where the moonlight wasted itself on the
+tops of the trees, without shedding hardly so much as a
+glimmering beam upon their pathway. After going a good way
+through this obscurity, they reached a high marble wall, which
+was overgrown with creeping plants, that made it shaggy with
+their verdure. The wall seemed to have no door, nor any
+windows, but rose up, lofty, and massive, and mysterious, and
+was neither to be clambered over, nor, as far as Theseus could
+perceive, to be passed through. Nevertheless, Ariadne did but
+press one of her soft little fingers against a particular block
+of marble and, though it looked as solid as any other part of
+the wall, it yielded to her touch, disclosing an entrance just
+wide enough to admit them They crept through, and the marble
+stone swung back into its place.
+
+"We are now," said Ariadne, "in the famous labyrinth which
+Daedalus built before he made himself a pair of wings, and flew
+away from our island like a bird. That Daedalus was a very
+cunning workman; but of all his artful contrivances, this
+labyrinth is the most wondrous. Were we to take but a few steps
+from the doorway, we might wander about all our lifetime, and
+never find it again. Yet in the very center of this labyrinth
+is the Minotaur; and, Theseus, you must go thither to seek
+him."
+
+"But how shall I ever find him," asked Theseus, "if the
+labyrinth so bewilders me as you say it will?"
+
+Just as he spoke, they heard a rough and very disagreeable
+roar, which greatly resembled the lowing of a fierce bull, but
+yet had some sort of sound like the human voice. Theseus even
+fancied a rude articulation in it, as if the creature that
+uttered it were trying to shape his hoarse breath into words.
+It was at some distance, however, and he really could not tell
+whether it sounded most like a bull's roar or a man's harsh
+voice.
+
+"That is the Minotaur's noise," whispered Ariadne, closely
+grasping the hand of Theseus, and pressing one of her own hands
+to her heart, which was all in a tremble. "You must follow that
+sound through the windings of the labyrinth, and, by and by,
+you will find him. Stay! take the end of this silken string; I
+will hold the other end; and then, if you win the victory. it
+will lead you again to this spot. Farewell, brave Theseus."
+
+So the young man took the end of the silken string in his left
+hand, and his gold-hilted sword, ready drawn from its scabbard,
+in the other, and trod boldly into the inscrutable labyrinth.
+How this labyrinth was built is more than I can tell you. But
+so cunningly contrived a mizmaze was never seen in the world,
+before nor since. There can be nothing else so intricate,
+unless it were the brain of a man like Daedalus, who planned
+it, or the heart of any ordinary man; which last, to be sure,
+is ten times as great a mystery as the labyrinth of Crete.
+Theseus had not taken five steps before he lost sight of
+Ariadne; and in five more his head was growing dizzy. But still
+he went on, now creeping through a low arch, now ascending a
+flight of steps, now in one crooked passage and now in another,
+with here a door opening before him, and there one banging
+behind, until it really seemed as if the walls spun round, and
+whirled him round along with them. And all the while, through
+these hollow avenues, now nearer, now farther off again,
+resounded the cry of the Minotaur; and the sound was so fierce,
+so cruel, so ugly, so like a bull's roar, and withal so like a
+human voice, and yet like neither of them, that the brave heart
+of Theseus grew sterner and angrier at every step; for he felt
+it an insult to the moon and sky, and to our affectionate and
+simple Mother Earth, that such a monster should have the
+audacity to exist.
+
+As he passed onward, the clouds gathered over the moon, and the
+labyrinth grew so dusky that Theseus could no longer discern
+the bewilderment through which he was passing. He would have
+left quite lost, and utterly hopeless of ever again walking in
+a straight path, if, every little while, he had not been
+conscious of a gentle twitch at the silken cord. Then he knew
+that the tender-hearted Ariadne was still holding the other
+end, and that she was fearing for him, and hoping for him, and
+giving him just as much of her sympathy as if she were close by
+his side. O, indeed, I can assure you, there was a vast deal of
+human sympathy running along that slender thread of silk. But
+still he followed the dreadful roar of the Minotaur, which now
+grew louder and louder, and finally so very loud that Theseus
+fully expected to come close upon him, at every new zizgag and
+wriggle of the path. And at last, in an open space, at the very
+center of the labyrinth, he did discern the hideous creature.
+
+Sure enough, what an ugly monster it was! Only his horned head
+belonged to a bull; and yet, somehow or other, he looked like a
+bull all over, preposterously waddling on his hind legs; or, if
+you happened to view him in another way, he seemed wholly a
+man, and all the more monstrous for being so. And there he was,
+the wretched thing, with no society, no companion, no kind of a
+mate, living only to do mischief, and incapable of knowing what
+affection means. Theseus hated him, and shuddered at him, and
+yet could not but be sensible of some sort of pity; and all the
+more, the uglier and more detestable the creature was. For he
+kept striding to and fro, in a solitary frenzy of rage,
+continually emitting a hoarse roar, which was oddly mixed up
+with half-shaped words; and, after listening a while, Theseus
+understood that the Minotaur was saying to himself how
+miserable he was, and how hungry, and how he hated everybody,
+and how he longed to eat up the human race alive.
+
+Ah! the bull-headed villain! And O, my good little people, you
+will perhaps see, one of these days, as I do now, that every
+human being who suffers any thing evil to get into his nature,
+or to remain there, is a kind of Minotaur, an enemy of his
+fellow-creatures, and separated from all good companionship, as
+this poor monster was.
+
+Was Theseus afraid? By no means, my dear auditors. What! a hero
+like Theseus afraid, Not had the Minotaur had twenty bull-heads
+instead of one. Bold as he was, however, I rather fancy that it
+strengthened his valiant heart, just at this crisis, to feel a
+tremulous twitch at the silken cord, which he was still holding
+in his left hand. It was as if Ariadne were giving him all her
+might and courage; and much as he already had, and little as
+she had to give, it made his own seem twice as much. And to
+confess the honest truth, he needed the whole; for now the
+Minotaur, turning suddenly about, caught sight of Theseus, and
+instantly lowered his horribly sharp horns, exactly as a mad
+bull does when he means to rush against an enemy. At the same
+time, he belched forth a tremendous roar, in which there was
+something like the words of human language, but all disjointed
+and shaken to pieces by passing through the gullet of a
+miserably enraged brute.
+
+Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say, and
+that rather by his gestures than his words; for the Minotaur's
+horns were sharper than his wits, and of a great deal more
+service to him than his tongue. But probably this was the sense
+of what he uttered:
+
+"Ah, wretch of a human being! I'll stick my horns through you,
+and toss you fifty feet high, and eat you up the moment you
+come down."
+
+"Come on, then, and try it!" was all that Theseus deigned to
+reply; for he was far too magnanimous to assault his enemy with
+insolent language.
+
+Without more words on either side, there ensued the most awful
+fight between Theseus and the Minotaur that ever happened
+beneath the sun or moon. I really know not how it might have
+turned out, if the monster, in his first headlong rush against
+Theseus, had not missed him, by a hair's breadth, and broken
+one of his horns short off against the stone wall. On this
+mishap, he bellowed so intolerably that a part of the labyrinth
+tumbled down, and all the inhabitants of Crete mistook the
+noise for an uncommonly heavy thunder storm. Smarting with the
+pain, he galloped around the open space in so ridiculous a way
+that Theseus laughed at it, long afterwards, though not
+precisely at the moment. After this, the two antagonists stood
+valiantly up to one another, and fought, sword to horn, for a
+long while. At last, the Minotaur made a run at Theseus, grazed
+his left side with his horn, and flung him down; and thinking
+that he had stabbed him to the heart, he cut a great caper in
+the air, opened his bull mouth from ear to ear, and prepared to
+snap his head off. But Theseus by this time had leaped up, and
+caught the monster off his guard. Fetching a sword stroke at
+him with all his force, he hit him fair upon the neck, and made
+his bull head skip six yards from his human body, which fell
+down flat upon the ground.
+
+So now the battle was ended. Immediately the moon shone out as
+brightly as if all the troubles of the world, and all the
+wickedness and the ugliness that infest human life, were past
+and gone forever. And Theseus, as he leaned on his sword,
+taking breath, felt another twitch of the silken cord; for all
+through the terrible encounter, he had held it fast in his left
+hand. Eager to let Ariadne know of his success, he followed the
+guidance of the thread, and soon found himself at the entrance
+of the labyrinth.
+
+"Thou hast slain the monster," cried Ariadne, clasping her
+hands.
+
+"Thanks to thee, dear Ariadne," answered Theseus, "I return
+victorious."
+
+"Then," said Ariadne, "we must quickly summon thy friends, and
+get them and thyself on board the vessel before dawn. If
+morning finds thee here, my father will avenge the Minotaur."
+
+To make my story short, the poor captives were awakened, and,
+hardly knowing whether it was not a joyful dream, were told of
+what Theseus had done, and that they must set sail for Athens
+before daybreak. Hastening down to the vessel, they all
+clambered on board, except Prince Theseus, who lingered behind
+them on the strand, holding Ariadne's hand clasped in his own.
+
+"Dear maiden," said he, "thou wilt surely go with us. Thou art
+too gentle and sweet a child for such an iron-hearted father as
+King Minos. He cares no more for thee than a granite rock cares
+for the little flower that grows in one of its crevices. But my
+father, King Aegeus, and my dear mother, Aethra, and all the
+fathers and mothers in Athens, and all the sons and daughters
+too, will love and honor thee as their benefactress. Come with
+us, then; for King Minos will be very angry when he knows what
+thou hast done."
+
+Now, some low-minded people, who pretend to tell the story of
+Theseus and Ariadne, have the face to say that this royal and
+honorable maiden did really flee away, under cover of the
+night, with the young stranger whose life she had preserved.
+They say, too, that Prince Theseus (who would have died sooner
+than wrong the meanest creature in the world) ungratefully
+deserted Ariadne, on a solitary island, where the vessel
+touched on its voyage to Athens. But, had the noble Theseus
+heard these falsehoods, he would have served their slanderous
+authors as he served the Minotaur! Here is what Ariadne
+answered, when the brave prince of Athens besought her to
+accompany him:
+
+"No, Theseus," the maiden said, pressing his hand, and then
+drawing back a step or two, "I cannot go with you. My father is
+old, and has nobody but myself to love him. Hard as you think
+his heart is, it would break to lose me. At first, King Minos
+will be angry; but he will soon forgive his only child; and, by
+and by, he will rejoice, I know, that no more youths and
+maidens must come from Athens to be devoured by the Minotaur. I
+have saved you, Theseus, as much for my father's sake as for
+your own. Farewell! Heaven bless you!"
+
+All this was so true, and so maiden-like, and was spoken with
+so sweet a dignity, that Theseus would have blushed to urge her
+any longer. Nothing remained for him, therefore, but to bid
+Ariadne an affectionate farewell, and to go on board the
+vessel, and set sail.
+
+In a few moments the white foam was boiling up before their
+prow, as Prince Theseus and his companions sailed out of the
+harbor, with a whistling breeze behind them. Talus, the brazen
+giant, on his never-ceasing sentinel's march, happened to be
+approaching that part of the coast; and they saw him, by the
+glimmering of the moonbeams on his polished surface, while he
+was yet a great way off. As the figure moved like clockwork,
+however, and could neither hasten his enormous strides nor
+retard them, he arrived at the port when they were just beyond
+the reach of his club. Nevertheless, straddling from headland
+to headland, as his custom was, Talus attempted to strike a
+blow at the vessel, and, overreaching himself, tumbled at full
+length into the sea, which splashed high over his gigantic
+shape, as when an iceberg turns a somerset. There he lies yet;
+and whoever desires to enrich himself by means of brass had
+better go thither with a diving bell, and fish up Talus.
+
+On the homeward voyage, the fourteen youths and damsels were in
+excellent spirits, as you will easily suppose. They spent most
+of their time in dancing, unless when the sidelong breeze made
+the deck slope too much. In due season, they came within sight
+of the coast of Attica, which was their native country. But
+here, I am grieved to tell you, happened a sad misfortune.
+
+You will remember (what Theseus unfortunately forgot) that his
+father, King Aegeus, had enjoined it upon him to hoist sunshiny
+sails, instead of black ones, in case he should overcome the
+Minotaur, and return victorious. In the joy of their success,
+however, and amidst the sports, dancing, and other merriment,
+with which these young folks wore away the time, they never
+once thought whether their sails were black, white, or rainbow
+colored, and, indeed, left it entirely to the mariners whether
+they had any sails at all. Thus the vessel returned, like a
+raven, with the same sable wings that had wafted her away. But
+poor King Aegeus, day after day, infirm as he was, had
+clambered to the summit of a cliff that overhung the sea, and
+there sat watching for Prince Theseus, homeward bound; and no
+sooner did he behold the fatal blackness of the sails, than he
+concluded that his dear son, whom he loved so much, and felt so
+proud of, had been eaten by the Minotaur. He could not bear the
+thought of living any longer; so, first flinging his crown and
+sceptre into the sea (useless baubles that they were to him
+now), King Aegeus merely stooped forward, and fell headlong
+over the cliff, and was drowned, poor soul, in the waves that
+foamed at its base!
+
+This was melancholy news for Prince Theseus, who, when he
+stepped ashore, found himself king of all the country, whether
+he would or no; and such a turn of fortune was enough to make
+any young man feel very much out of spirits. However, he sent
+for his dear mother to Athens, and, by taking her advice in
+matters of state, became a very excellent monarch, and was
+greatly beloved by his people.
+
+
+
+THE PYGMIES.
+
+A great while ago, when the world was full of wonders, there
+lived an earth-born Giant, named Antaeus, and a million or more
+of curious little earth-born people, who were called Pygmies.
+This Giant and these Pygmies being children of the same mother
+(that is to say, our good old Grandmother Earth), were all
+brethren, and dwelt together in a very friendly and
+affectionate manner, far, far off, in the middle of hot Africa.
+The Pygmies were so small, and there were so many sandy deserts
+and such high mountains between them and the rest of mankind,
+that nobody could get a peep at them oftener than once in a
+hundred years. As for the Giant, being of a very lofty stature,
+it was easy enough to see him, but safest to keep out of his
+sight.
+
+Among the Pygmies, I suppose, if one of them grew to the height
+of six or eight inches, he was reckoned a prodigiously tall
+man. It must have been very pretty to behold their little
+cities, with streets two or three feet wide, paved with the
+smallest pebbles, and bordered by habitations about as big as a
+squirrel's cage. The king's palace attained to the stupendous
+magnitude of Periwinkle's baby house, and stood in the center
+of a spacious square, which could hardly have been covered by
+our hearth- rug. Their principal temple, or cathedral, was as
+lofty as yonder bureau, and was looked upon as a wonderfully
+sublime and magnificent edifice. All these structures were
+built neither of stone nor wood. They were neatly plastered
+together by the Pygmy workmen, pretty much like birds' nests,
+out of straw, feathers, egg shells, and other small bits of
+stuff, with stiff clay instead of mortar; and when the hot sun
+had dried them, they were just as snug and comfortable as a
+Pygmy could desire.
+
+The country round about was conveniently laid out in fields,
+the largest of which was nearly of the same extent as one of
+Sweet Fern's flower beds. Here the Pygmies used to plant wheat
+and other kinds of grain, which, when it grew up and ripened,
+overshadowed these tiny people as the pines, and the oaks, and
+the walnut and chestnut trees overshadow you and me, when we
+walk in our own tracts of woodland. At harvest time, they were
+forced to go with their little axes and cut down the grain,
+exactly as a woodcutter makes a clearing in the forest; and
+when a stalk of wheat, with its overburdened top, chanced to
+come crashing down upon an unfortunate Pygmy, it was apt to be
+a very sad affair. If it did not smash him all to pieces, at
+least, I am sure, it must have made the poor little fellow's
+head ache. And O, my stars! if the fathers and mothers were so
+small, what must the children and babies have been? A whole
+family of them might have been put to bed in a shoe, or have
+crept into an old glove, and played at hide-and-seek in its
+thumb and fingers. You might have hidden a year-old baby under
+a thimble.
+
+Now these funny Pygmies, as I told you before, had a Giant for
+their neighbor and brother, who was bigger, if possible, than
+they were little. He was so very tall that he carried a pine
+tree, which was eight feet through the butt, for a walking
+stick. It took a far-sighted Pygmy, I can assure you, to
+discern his summit without the help of a telescope; and
+sometimes, in misty weather, they could not see his upper half,
+but only his long legs, which seemed to be striding about by
+themselves. But at noonday in a clear atmosphere, when the sun
+shone brightly over him, the Giant Antaeus presented a very
+grand spectacle. There he used to stand, a perfect mountain of
+a man, with his great countenance smiling down upon his little
+brothers, and his one vast eye (which was as big as a cart
+wheel, and placed right in the center of his forehead) giving a
+friendly wink to the whole nation at once.
+
+The Pygmies loved to talk with Antaeus; and fifty times a day,
+one or another of them would turn up his head, and shout
+through the hollow of his fists, "Halloo, brother Antaeus! How
+are you, my good fellow?"  And when the small distant squeak of
+their voices reached his ear, the Giant would make answer,
+"Pretty well, brother Pygmy, I thank you," in a thunderous roar
+that would have shaken down the walls of their strongest
+temple, only that it came from so far aloft.
+
+It was a happy circumstance that Antaeus was the Pygmy people's
+friend; for there was more strength in his little finger than
+in ten million of such bodies as this. If he had been as
+ill-natured to them as he was to everybody else, he might have
+beaten down their biggest city at one kick, and hardly have
+known that he did it. With the tornado of his breath, he could
+have stripped the roofs from a hundred dwellings and sent
+thousands of the inhabitants whirling through the air. He might
+have set his immense foot upon a multitude; and when he took it
+up again, there would have been a pitiful sight, to be sure.
+But, being the son of Mother Earth, as they likewise were, the
+Giant gave them his brotherly kindness, and loved them with as
+big a love as it was possible to feel for creatures so very
+small. And, on their parts, the Pygmies loved Antaeus with as
+much affection as their tiny hearts could hold. He was always
+ready to do them any good offices that lay in his power; as for
+example, when they wanted a breeze to turn their windmills, the
+Giant would set all the sails a-going with the mere natural
+respiration of his lungs. When the sun was too hot, he often
+sat himself down, and let his shadow fall over the kingdom,
+from one frontier to the other; and as for matters in general,
+he was wise enough to let them alone, and leave the Pygmies to
+manage their own affairs--which, after all, is about the best
+thing that great people can do for little ones.
+
+In short, as I said before, Antaeus loved the Pygmies, and the
+Pygmies loved Antaeus. The Giant's life being as long as his
+body was large, while the lifetime of a Pygmy was but a span,
+this friendly intercourse had been going on for innumerable
+generations and ages. It was written about in the Pygmy
+histories, and talked about in their ancient traditions. The
+most venerable and white-bearded Pygmy had never heard of a
+time, even in his greatest of grandfathers' days, when the
+Giant was not their enormous friend. Once, to be sure (as was
+recorded on an obelisk, three feet high, erected on the place
+of the catastrophe), Antaeus sat down upon about five thousand
+Pygmies, who were assembled at a military review. But this was
+one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to blame; so
+that the small folks never took it to heart, and only requested
+the Giant to be careful forever afterwards to examine the acre
+of ground where he intended to squat himself.
+
+It is a very pleasant picture to imagine Antaeus standing among
+the Pygmies, like the spire of the tallest cathedral that ever
+was built, while they ran about like pismires at his feet; and
+to think that, in spite of their difference in size, there were
+affection and sympathy between them and him! Indeed, it has
+always seemed to me that the Giant needed the little people
+more than the Pygmies needed the Giant. For, unless they had
+been his neighbors and well wishers, and, as we may say, his
+playfellows, Antaeus would not have had a single friend in the
+world. No other being like himself had ever been created. No
+creature of his own size had ever talked with him, in thunder-
+like accents, face to face. When he stood with his head among
+the clouds, he was quite alone, and had been so for hundreds of
+years, and would be so forever. Even if he had met another
+Giant, Antaeus would have fancied the world not big enough for
+two such vast personages, and, instead of being friends with
+him, would have fought him till one of the two was killed. But
+with the Pygmies he was the most sportive and humorous, and
+merry-hearted, and sweet-tempered old Giant that ever washed
+his face in a wet cloud.
+
+His little friends, like all other small people, had a great
+opinion of their own importance, and used to assume quite a
+patronizing air towards the Giant.
+
+"Poor creature!" they said one to another. "He has a very dull
+time of it, all by himself; and we ought not to grudge wasting
+a little of our precious time to amuse him. He is not half so
+bright as we are, to be sure; and, for that reason, he needs us
+to look after his comfort and happiness. Let us be kind to the
+old fellow. Why, if Mother Earth had not been very kind to
+ourselves, we might all have been Giants too."
+
+On all their holidays, the Pygmies had excellent sport with
+Antaeus. He often stretched himself out at full length on the
+ground, where he looked like the long ridge of a hill; and it
+was a good hour's walk, no doubt, for a short-legged Pygmy to
+journey from head to foot of the Giant. He would lay down his
+great hand flat on the grass, and challenge the tallest of them
+to clamber upon it, and straddle from finger to finger. So
+fearless were they, that they made nothing of creeping in among
+the folds of his garments. When his head lay sidewise on the
+earth, they would march boldly up, and peep into the great
+cavern of his mouth, and take it all as a joke (as indeed it
+was meant) when Antaeus gave a sudden snap of his jaws, as if
+he were going to swallow fifty of them at once. You would have
+laughed to see the children dodging in and out among his hair,
+or swinging from his beard. It is impossible to tell half of
+the funny tricks that they played with their huge comrade; but
+I do not know that anything was more curious than when a party
+of boys were seen running races on his forehead, to try which
+of them could get first round the circle of his one great eye.
+It was another favorite feat with them to march along the
+bridge of his nose, and jump down upon his upper lip.
+
+If the truth must be told, they were sometimes as troublesome
+to the Giant as a swarm of ants or mosquitoes, especially as
+they had a fondness for mischief, and liked to prick his skin
+with their little swords and lances, to see how thick and tough
+it was. But Antaeus took it all kindly enough; although, once
+in a while, when he happened to be sleepy, he would grumble out
+a peevish word or two, like the muttering of a tempest, and ask
+them to have done with their nonsense. A great deal oftener,
+however, he watched their merriment and gambols until his huge,
+heavy, clumsy wits were completely stirred up by them; and then
+would he roar out such a tremendous volume of immeasurable
+laughter, that the whole nation of Pygmies had to put their
+hands to their ears, else it would certainly have deafened
+them.
+
+"Ho! ho! ho!" quoth the Giant, shaking his mountainous sides.
+"What a funny thing it is to be little! If I were not Antaeus,
+I should like to be a Pygmy, just for the joke's sake."
+
+The Pygmies had but one thing to trouble them in the world.
+They were constantly at war with the cranes, and had always
+been so, ever since the long- lived Giant could remember. From
+time to time, very terrible battles had been fought in which
+sometimes the little men won the victory, and sometimes the
+cranes. According to some historians, the Pygmies used to go to
+the battle, mounted on the backs of goats and rams; but such
+animals as these must have been far too big for Pygmies to ride
+upon; so that, I rather suppose, they rode on squirrel-back, or
+rabbit-back, or rat-back, or perhaps got upon hedgehogs, whose
+prickly quills would be very terrible to the enemy. However
+this might be, and whatever creatures the Pygmies rode upon, I
+do not doubt that they made a formidable appearance, armed with
+sword and spear, and bow and arrow, blowing their tiny trumpet,
+and shouting their little war cry. They never failed to exhort
+one another to fight bravely, and recollect that the world had
+its eyes upon them; although, in simple truth, the only
+spectator was the Giant Antaeus, with his one, great, stupid
+eye in the middle of his forehead.
+
+When the two armies joined battle, the cranes would rush
+forward, flapping their wings and stretching out their necks,
+and would perhaps snatch up some of the Pygmies crosswise in
+their beaks. Whenever this happened, it was truly an awful
+spectacle to see those little men of might kicking and
+sprawling in the air, and at last disappearing down the crane's
+long, crooked throat, swallowed up alive. A hero, you know,
+must hold himself in readiness for any kind of fate; and
+doubtless the glory of the thing was a consolation to him, even
+in the crane's gizzard. If Antaeus observed that the battle was
+going hard against his little allies, he generally stopped
+laughing, and ran with mile-long strides to their assistance,
+flourishing his club aloft and shouting at the cranes, who
+quacked and croaked, and retreated as fast as they could. Then
+the Pygmy army would march homeward in triumph, attributing the
+victory entirely to their own valor, and to the warlike skill
+and strategy of whomsoever happened to be captain general; and
+for a tedious while afterwards, nothing would be heard of but
+grand processions, and public banquets, and brilliant
+illuminations, and shows of wax-work, with likenesses of the
+distinguished officers, as small as life.
+
+In the above-described warfare, if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out
+a crane's tail feather, it proved a very great feather in his
+cap. Once or twice, if you will believe me, a little man was
+made chief ruler of the nation for no other merit in the world
+than bringing home such a feather.
+
+But I have now said enough to let you see what a gallant little
+people these were, and how happily they and their forefathers,
+for nobody knows how many generations, had lived with the
+immeasurable Giant Antaeus. In the remaining part of the story,
+I shall tell you of a far more astonishing battle than any that
+was fought between the Pygmies and the cranes.
+
+One day the mighty Antaeus was lolling at full length among his
+little friends. His pine-tree walking stick lay on the ground,
+close by his side. His head was in one part of the kingdom, and
+his feet extended across the boundaries of another part; and he
+was taking whatever comfort he could get, while the Pygmies
+scrambled over him, and peeped into his cavernous mouth, and
+played among his hair. Sometimes, for a minute or two, the
+Giant dropped asleep, and snored like the rush of a whirlwind.
+During one of these little bits of slumber, a Pygmy chanced to
+climb upon his shoulder, and took a view around the horizon, as
+from the summit of a hill; and he beheld something, a long way
+off, which made him rub the bright specks of his eyes, and look
+sharper than before. At first he mistook it for a mountain, and
+wondered how it had grown up so suddenly out of the earth. But
+soon he saw the mountain move. As it came nearer and nearer,
+what should it turn out to be but a human shape, not so big as
+Antaeus, it is true, although a very enormous figure, in
+comparison with Pygmies, and a vast deal bigger than the men we
+see nowadays.
+
+When the Pygmy was quite satisfied that his eyes had not
+deceived him, he scampered, as fast as his legs would carry
+him, to the Giant's ear, and stooping over its cavity, shouted
+lustily into it:
+
+"Halloo, brother Antaeus! Get up this minute, and take your
+pine-tree walking stick in your hand. Here comes another Giant
+to have a tussle with you."
+
+"Poh, poh!" grumbled Antaeus, only half awake. "None of your
+nonsense, my little fellow! Don't you see I'm sleepy? There is
+not a Giant on earth for whom I would take the trouble to get
+up."
+
+But the Pygmy looked again, and now perceived that the stranger
+was coming directly towards the prostrate form of Antaeus. With
+every step, he looked less like a blue mountain, and more like
+an immensely large man. He was soon so nigh, that there could
+be no possible mistake about the matter. There he was, with the
+sun flaming on his golden helmet, and flashing from his
+polished breastplate; he had a sword by his side, and a lion's
+skin over his back, and on his right shoulder he carried a
+club, which looked bulkier and heavier than the pine-tree
+walking stick of Antaeus.
+
+By this time, the whole nation of the Pygmies had seen the new
+wonder, and a million of them set up a shout all together; so
+that it really made quite an audible squeak.
+
+"Get up, Antaeus! Bestir yourself, you lazy old Giant! Here
+comes another Giant, as strong as you are, to fight with you."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense!" growled the sleepy Giant. "I'll have my
+nap out, come who may."
+
+Still the stranger drew nearer; and now the Pygmies could
+plainly discern that, if his stature were less lofty than the
+Giant's, yet his shoulders were even broader. And, in truth,
+what a pair of shoulders they must have been! As I told you, a
+long while ago, they once upheld the sky. The Pygmies, being
+ten times as vivacious as their great numskull of a brother,
+could not abide the Giant's slow movements, and were determined
+to have him on his feet. So they kept shouting to him, and even
+went so far as to prick him with their swords.
+
+"Get up, get up, get up," they cried. "Up with you, lazy bones!
+The strange Giant's club is bigger than your own, his shoulders
+are the broadest, and we think him the stronger of the two."
+
+Antaeus could not endure to have it said that any mortal was
+half so mighty as himself. This latter remark of the Pygmies
+pricked him deeper than their swords; and, sitting up, in
+rather a sulky humor, he gave a gape of several yards wide,
+rubbed his eyes, and finally turned his stupid head in the
+direction whither his little friends were eagerly pointing.
+
+No sooner did he set eyes on the stranger, than, leaping on his
+feet, and seizing his walking stick, he strode a mile or two to
+meet him; all the while brandishing the sturdy pine tree, so
+that it whistled through the air.
+
+"Who are you?"  thundered the Giant. "And what do you want in
+my dominions?"
+
+There was one strange thing about Antaeus, of which I have not
+yet told you, lest, hearing of so many wonders all in a lump,
+you might not believe much more than half of them. You are to
+know, then, that whenever this redoubtable Giant touched the
+ground, either with his hand, his foot, or any other part of
+his body, he grew stronger than ever he had been before. The
+Earth, you remember, was his mother, and was very fond of him,
+as being almost the biggest of her children; and so she took
+this method of keeping him always in full vigor. Some persons
+affirm that he grew ten times stronger at every touch; others
+say that it was only twice as strong. But only think of it!
+Whenever Antaeus took a walk, supposing it were but ten miles,
+and that he stepped a hundred yards at a stride, you may try to
+cipher out how much mightier he was, on sitting down again,
+than when he first started. And whenever he flung himself on
+the earth to take a little repose, even if he got up the very
+next instant, he would be as strong as exactly ten just such
+giants as his former self. It was well for the world that
+Antaeus happened to be of a sluggish disposition and liked ease
+better than exercise; for, if he had frisked about like the
+Pygmies, and touched the earth as often as they did, he would
+long ago have been strong enough to pull down the sky about
+people's ears. But these great lubberly fellows resemble
+mountains, not only in bulk, but in their disinclination to
+move.
+
+Any other mortal man, except the very one whom Antaeus had now
+encountered, would have been half frightened to death by the
+Giant's ferocious aspect and terrible voice. But the stranger
+did not seem at all disturbed. He carelessly lifted his club,
+and balanced it in his hand, measuring Antaeus with his eye,
+from head to foot, not as if wonder-smitten at his stature, but
+as if he had seen a great many Giants before, and this was by
+no means the biggest of them. In fact, if the Giant had been no
+bigger than the Pygmies (who stood pricking up their ears, and
+looking and listening to what was going forward), the stranger
+could not have been less afraid of him.
+
+"Who are you, I say?" roared Antaeus again. "What's your name?
+Why do you come hither? Speak, you vagabond, or I'll try the
+thickness of your skull with my walking-stick!"
+
+"You are a very discourteous Giant," answered the stranger
+quietly, "and I shall probably have to teach you a little
+civility, before we part. As for my name, it is Hercules. I
+have come hither because this is my most convenient road to the
+garden of the Hesperides, whither I am going to get three of
+the golden apples for King Eurystheus."
+
+"Caitiff, you shall go no farther!" bellowed Antaeus, putting
+on a grimmer look than before; for he had heard of the mighty
+Hercules, and hated him because he was said to be so strong."
+Neither shall you go back whence you came!"
+
+"How will you prevent me," asked Hercules, "from going whither
+I please?"
+
+"By hitting you a rap with this pine tree here," shouted
+Antaeus, scowling so that he made himself the ugliest monster
+in Africa. "I am fifty times stronger than you; and now that I
+stamp my foot upon the ground, I am five hundred times
+stronger! I am ashamed to kill such a puny little dwarf as you
+seem to be. I will make a slave of you, and you shall likewise
+be the slave of my brethren here, the Pygmies. So throw down
+your club and your other weapons; and as for that lion's skin,
+I intend to have a pair of gloves made of it."
+
+"Come and take it off my shoulders, then," answered Hercules,
+lifting his club.
+
+Then the Giant, grinning with rage, strode tower-like towards
+the stranger (ten times strengthened at every step), and
+fetched a monstrous blow at him with his pine tree, which
+Hercules caught upon his club; and being more skilful than
+Antaeus, he paid him back such a rap upon the sconce, that down
+tumbled the great lumbering man-mountain, flat upon the ground.
+The poor little Pygmies (who really never dreamed that anybody
+in the world was half so strong as their brother Antaeus) were
+a good deal dismayed at this. But no sooner was the Giant down,
+than up he bounced again, with tenfold might, and such a
+furious visage as was horrible to behold. He aimed another blow
+at Hercules, but struck awry, being blinded with wrath, and
+only hit his poor innocent Mother Earth, who groaned and
+trembled at the stroke. His pine tree went so deep into the
+ground, and stuck there so fast, that, before Antaeus could get
+it out, Hercules brought down his club across his shoulders
+with a mighty thwack, which made the Giant roar as if all sorts
+of intolerable noises had come screeching and rumbling out of
+his immeasurable lungs in that one cry. Away it went, over
+mountains and valleys, and, for aught I know, was heard on the
+other side of the African deserts.
+
+As for the Pygmies, their capital city was laid in ruins by the
+concussion and vibration of the air; and, though there was
+uproar enough without their help, they all set up a shriek out
+of three millions of little throats, fancying, no doubt, that
+they swelled the Giant's bellow by at least ten times as much.
+Meanwhile, Antaeus had scrambled upon his feet again, and
+pulled his pine tree out of the earth; and, all aflame with
+fury, and more outrageously strong than ever, he ran at
+Hercules, and brought down another blow.
+
+"This time, rascal," shouted he, "you shall not escape me."
+
+But once more Hercules warded off the stroke with his club, and
+the Giant's pine tree was shattered into a thousand splinters,
+most of which flew among the Pygmies, and did them more
+mischief than I like to think about. Before Antaeus could get
+out of the way, Hercules let drive again, and gave him another
+knock- down blow, which sent him heels over head, but served
+only to increase his already enormous and insufferable
+strength. As for his rage, there is no telling what a fiery
+furnace it had now got to be. His one eye was nothing but a
+circle of red flame. Having now no weapons but his fists, he
+doubled them up (each bigger than a hogshead), smote one
+against the other, and danced up and down with absolute frenzy,
+flourishing his immense arms about, as if he meant not merely
+to kill Hercules, but to smash the whole world to pieces.
+
+"Come on!" roared this thundering Giant. "Let me hit you but
+one box on the ear, and you'll never have the headache again."
+
+Now Hercules (though strong enough, as you already know, to
+hold the sky up) began to be sensible that he should never win
+the victory, if he kept on knocking Antaeus down; for, by and
+by, if he hit him such hard blows, the Giant would inevitably,
+by the help of his Mother Earth, become stronger than the
+mighty Hercules himself. So, throwing down his club, with which
+he had fought so many dreadful battles, the hero stood ready to
+receive his antagonist with naked arms.
+
+"Step forward," cried he. "Since I've broken your pine tree,
+we'll try which is the better man at a wrestling match."
+
+"Aha! then I'll soon satisfy you," shouted the Giant; for, if
+there was one thing on which he prided himself more than
+another, it was his skill in wrestling. "Villain, I'll fling
+you where you can never pick yourself up again."
+
+On came Antaeus, hopping and capering with the scorching heat
+of his rage, and getting new vigor wherewith to wreak his
+passion, every time he hopped.
+
+But Hercules, you must understand, was wiser than this numskull
+of a Giant, and had thought of a way to fight him--huge,
+earth-born monster that he was--and to conquer him too, in
+spite of all that his Mother Earth could do for him. Watching
+his opportunity, as the mad Giant made a rush at him, Hercules
+caught him round the middle with both hands, lifted him high
+into the air, and held him aloft overhead.
+
+Just imagine it, my dear little friends. What a spectacle it
+must have been, to see this monstrous fellow sprawling in the
+air, face downwards, kicking out his long legs and wriggling
+his whole vast body, like a baby when its father holds it at
+arm's length towards the ceiling.
+
+But the most wonderful thing was, that, as soon as Antaeus was
+fairly off the earth, he began to lose the vigor which he had
+gained by touching it. Hercules very soon perceived that his
+troublesome enemy was growing weaker, both because he struggled
+and kicked with less violence, and because the thunder of his
+big voice subsided into a grumble. The truth was that unless
+the Giant touched Mother Earth as often as once in five
+minutes, not only his overgrown strength, but the very breath
+of his life, would depart from him. Hercules had guessed this
+secret; and it may be well for us all to remember it, in case
+we should ever have to fight a battle with a fellow like
+Antaeus. For these earth-born creatures are only difficult to
+conquer on their own ground, but may easily be managed if we
+can contrive to lift them into a loftier and purer region. So
+it proved with the poor Giant, whom I am really a little sorry
+for, notwithstanding his uncivil way of treating strangers who
+came to visit him.
+
+When his strength and breath were quite gone, Hercules gave his
+huge body a toss, and flung it about a mile off, where it fell
+heavily, and lay with no more motion than a sand hill. It was
+too late for the Giant's Mother Earth to help him now; and I
+should not wonder if his ponderous bones were lying on the same
+spot to this very day, and were mistaken for those of an
+uncommonly large elephant.
+
+But, alas me! What a wailing did the poor little Pygmies set up
+when they saw their enormous brother treated in this terrible
+manner! If Hercules heard their shrieks, however, he took no
+notice, and perhaps fancied them only the shrill, plaintive
+twittering of small birds that had been frightened from their
+nests by the uproar of the battle between himself and Antaeus.
+Indeed, his thoughts had been so much taken up with the Giant,
+that he had never once looked at the Pygmies, nor even knew
+that there was such a funny little nation in the world. And
+now, as he had traveled a good way, and was also rather weary
+with his exertions in the fight, he spread out his lion's skin
+on the ground, and, reclining himself upon it, fell fast
+asleep.
+
+As soon as the Pygmies saw Hercules preparing for a nap, they
+nodded their little heads at one another, and winked with their
+little eyes. And when his deep, regular breathing gave them
+notice that he was asleep, they assembled together in an
+immense crowd, spreading over a space of about twenty-seven
+feet square. One of their most eloquent orators (and a valiant
+warrior enough, besides, though hardly so good at any other
+weapon as he was with his tongue) climbed upon a toadstool,
+and, from that elevated position, addressed the multitude. His
+sentiments were pretty much as follows; or, at all events,
+something like this was probably the upshot of his speech:
+
+"Tall Pygmies and mighty little men! You and all of us have
+seen what a public calamity has been brought to pass, and what
+an insult has here been offered to the majesty of our nation.
+Yonder lies Antaeus, our great friend and brother, slain,
+within our territory, by a miscreant who took him at
+disadvantage, and fought him (if fighting it can be called) in
+a way that neither man, nor Giant, nor Pygmy ever dreamed of
+fighting, until this hour. And, adding a grievous contumely to
+the wrong already done us, the miscreant has now fallen asleep
+as quietly as if nothing were to be dreaded from our wrath! It
+behooves you, fellow-countrymen, to consider in what aspect we
+shall stand before the world, and what will be the verdict of
+impartial history, should we suffer these accumulated outrages
+to go unavenged.
+
+"Antaeus was our brother, born of that same beloved parent to
+whom we owe the thews and sinews, as well as the courageous
+hearts, which made him proud of our relationship. He was our
+faithful ally, and fell fighting as much for our national
+rights and immunities as for his own personal ones. We and our
+forefathers have dwelt in friendship with him, and held
+affectionate intercourse as man to man, through immemorial
+generations. You remember how often our entire people have
+reposed in his great shadow, and how our little ones have
+played at hide-and-seek in the tangles of his hair, and how his
+mighty footsteps have familiarly gone to and fro among us, and
+never trodden upon any of our toes. And there lies this dear
+brother-- this sweet and amiable friend--this brave and
+faithful ally---this virtuous Giant--this blameless and
+excellent Antaeus--dead! Dead! Silent! Powerless! A mere
+mountain of clay! Forgive my tears! Nay, I behold your own.
+Were we to drown the world with them, could the world blame us?
+
+"But to resume: Shall we, my countrymen, suffer this wicked
+stranger to depart unharmed, and triumph in his treacherous
+victory, among distant communities of the earth? Shall we not
+rather compel him to leave his bones here on our soil, by the
+side of our slain brother's bones? so that, while one skeleton
+shall remain as the everlasting monument of our sorrow, the
+other shall endure as long, exhibiting to the whole human race
+a terrible example of Pygmy vengeance! Such is the question. I
+put it to you in full confidence of a response that shall be
+worthy of our national character, and calculated to increase,
+rather than diminish, the glory which our ancestors have
+transmitted to us, and which we ourselves have proudly
+vindicated in our warfare with the cranes."
+
+The orator was here interrupted by a burst of irrepressible
+enthusiasm; every individual Pygmy crying out that the national
+honor must be preserved at all hazards. He bowed, and, making a
+gesture for silence, wound up his harangue in the following
+admirable manner:
+
+"It only remains for us, then, to decide whether we shall carry
+on the war in our national capacity--one united people against
+a common enemy--or whether some champion, famous in former
+fights, shall be selected to defy the slayer of our brother
+Antaeus to single combat. In the latter case, though not
+unconscious that there may be taller men among you, I hereby
+offer myself for that enviable duty. And believe me, dear
+countrymen, whether I live or die, the honor of this great
+country, and the fame bequeathed us by our heroic progenitors,
+shall suffer no diminution in my hands. Never, while I can
+wield this sword, of which I now fling away the
+scabbard--never, never, never, even if the crimson hand that
+slew the great Antaeus shall lay me prostrate, like him, on the
+soil which I give my life to defend."
+
+So saying, this valiant Pygmy drew out his weapon (which was
+terrible to behold, being as long as the blade of a penknife),
+and sent the scabbard whirling over the heads of the multitude.
+His speech was followed by an uproar of applause, as its
+patriotism and self-devotion unquestionably deserved; and the
+shouts and clapping of hands would have been greatly prolonged,
+had they not been rendered quite inaudible by a deep
+respiration, vulgarly called a snore, from the sleeping
+Hercules.
+
+It was finally decided that the whole nation of Pygmies should
+set to work to destroy Hercules; not, be it understood, from
+any doubt that a single champion would be capable of putting
+him to the sword, but because he was a public enemy, and all
+were desirous of sharing in the glory of his defeat. There was
+a debate whether the national honor did not demand that a
+herald should be sent with a trumpet, to stand over the ear of
+Hercules, and after blowing a blast right into it, to defy him
+to the combat by formal proclamation. But two or three
+venerable and sagacious Pygmies, well versed in state affairs,
+gave it as their opinion that war already existed, and that it
+was their rightful privilege to take the enemy by surprise.
+Moreover, if awakened, and allowed to get upon his feet,
+Hercules might happen to do them a mischief before he could be
+beaten down again. For, as these sage counselors remarked, the
+stranger's club was really very big, and had rattled like a
+thunderbolt against the skull of Antaeus. So the Pygmies
+resolved to set aside all foolish punctilios, and assail their
+antagonist at once.
+
+Accordingly, all the fighting men of the nation took their
+weapons, and went boldly up to Hercules, who still lay fast
+asleep, little dreaming of the harm which the Pygmies meant to
+do him. A body of twenty thousand archers marched in front,
+with their little bows all ready, and the arrows on the string.
+The same number were ordered to clamber upon Hercules, some
+with spades to dig his eyes out, and others with bundles of
+hay, and all manner of rubbish with which they intended to plug
+up his mouth and nostrils, so that he might perish for lack of
+breath. These last, however, could by no means perform their
+appointed duty; inasmuch as the enemy's breath rushed out of
+his nose in an obstreperous hurricane and whirlwind, which blew
+the Pygmies away as fast as they came nigh. It was found
+necessary, therefore, to hit upon some other method of carrying
+on the war.
+
+After holding a council, the captains ordered their troops to
+collect sticks, straws, dry weeds, and whatever combustible
+stuff they could find, and make a pile of it, heaping it high
+around the head of Hercules. As a great many thousand Pygmies
+were employed in this task, they soon brought together several
+bushels of inflammatory matter, and raised so tall a heap,
+that, mounting on its summit, they were quite upon a level with
+the sleeper's face. The archers, meanwhile, were stationed
+within bow shot, with orders to let fly at Hercules the instant
+that he stirred. Everything being in readiness, a torch was
+applied to the pile, which immediately burst into flames, and
+soon waxed hot enough to roast the enemy, had he but chosen to
+lie still. A Pygmy, you know, though so very small, might set
+the world on fire, just as easily as a Giant could; so that
+this was certainly the very best way of dealing with their foe,
+provided they could have kept him quiet while the conflagration
+was going forward.
+
+But no sooner did Hercules begin to be scorched, than up he
+started, with his hair in a red blaze.
+
+"What's all this?" he cried, bewildered with sleep, and staring
+about him as if he expected to see another Giant.
+
+At that moment the twenty thousand archers twanged their
+bowstrings, and the arrows came whizzing, like so many winged
+mosquitoes, right into the face of Hercules. But I doubt
+whether more than half a dozen of them punctured the skin,
+which was remarkably tough, as you know the skin of a hero has
+good need to be.
+
+"Villain!" shouted all the Pygmies at once. "You have killed
+the Giant Antaeus, our great brother, and the ally of our
+nation. We declare bloody war against you, and will slay you on
+the spot."
+
+Surprised at the shrill piping of so many little voices,
+Hercules, after putting out the conflagration of his hair,
+gazed all round about, but could see nothing. At last, however,
+looking narrowly on the ground, he espied the innumerable
+assemblage of Pygmies at his feet. He stooped down, and taking
+up the nearest one between his thumb and finger, set him on the
+palm of his left hand, and held him at a proper distance for
+examination. It chanced to be the very identical Pygmy who had
+spoken from the top of the toadstool, and had offered himself
+as a champion to meet Hercules in single combat.
+
+"What in the world, my little fellow," ejaculated Hercules,
+"may you be?"
+
+"I am your enemy," answered the valiant Pygmy, in his mightiest
+squeak. "You have slain the enormous Antaeus, our brother by
+the mother's side, and for ages the faithful ally of our
+illustrious nation. We are determined to put you to death; and
+for my own part, I challenge you to instant battle, on equal
+ground."
+
+Hercules was so tickled with the Pygmy's big words and warlike
+gestures, that he burst into a great explosion of laughter, and
+almost dropped the poor little mite of a creature off the palm
+of his hand, through the ecstasy and convulsion of his
+merriment.
+
+"Upon my word," cried he, "I thought I had seen wonders before
+to-day--hydras with nine heads, stags with golden horns,
+six-legged men, three-headed dogs, giants with furnaces in
+their stomachs, and nobody knows what besides. But here, on the
+palm of my hand, stands a wonder that outdoes them all! Your
+body, my little friend, is about the size of an ordinary man's
+finger. Pray, how big may your soul be?"
+
+"As big as your own!" said the Pygmy.
+
+Hercules was touched with the little man's dauntless courage,
+and could not help acknowledging such a brotherhood with him as
+one hero feels for another.
+
+"My good little people," said he, making a low obeisance to the
+grand nation, "not for all the world would I do an intentional
+injury to such brave fellows as you! Your hearts seem to me so
+exceedingly great, that, upon my honor, I marvel how your small
+bodies can contain them. I sue for peace, and, as a condition
+of it, will take five strides, and be out of your kingdom at
+the sixth. Good-bye. I shall pick my steps carefully, for fear
+of treading upon some fifty of you, without knowing it. Ha, ha,
+ha! Ho, ho, ho! For once, Hercules acknowledges himself
+vanquished."
+
+Some writers say, that Hercules gathered up the whole race of
+Pygmies in his lion's skin, and carried them home to Greece,
+for the children of King Eurystheus to play with. But this is a
+mistake. He left them, one and all, within their own territory,
+where, for aught I can tell, their descendants are alive to the
+present day, building their little houses, cultivating their
+little fields, spanking their little children, waging their
+little warfare with the cranes, doing their little business,
+whatever it may be, and reading their little histories of
+ancient times. In those histories, perhaps, it stands recorded,
+that, a great many centuries ago, the valiant Pygmies avenged
+the death of the Giant Antaeus by scaring away the mighty
+Hercules.
+
+
+
+THE DRAGON'S TEETH.
+
+Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, the three sons of King Agenor, and
+their little sister Europa (who was a very beautiful child),
+were at play together near the seashore in their father's
+kingdom of Phoenicia. They had rambled to some distance from
+the palace where their parents dwelt, and were now in a verdant
+meadow, on one side of which lay the sea, all sparkling and
+dimpling in the sunshine, and murmuring gently against the
+beach. The three boys were very happy, gathering flowers, and
+twining them into garlands, with which they adorned the little
+Europa. Seated on the grass, the child was almost hidden under
+an abundance of buds and blossoms, whence her rosy face peeped
+merrily out, and, as Cadmus said, was the prettiest of all the
+flowers.
+
+Just then, there came a splendid butterfly, fluttering along
+the meadow; and Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix set off in pursuit
+of it, crying out that it was a flower with wings. Europa, who
+was a little wearied with playing all day long, did not chase
+the butterfly with her brothers, but sat still where they had
+left her, and closed her eyes. For a while, she listened to the
+pleasant murmur of the sea, which was like a voice saying
+"Hush!" and bidding her go to sleep. But the pretty child, if
+she slept at all, could not have slept more than a moment, when
+she heard something trample on the grass, not far from her,
+and, peeping out from the heap of flowers, beheld a snow-white
+bull.
+
+And whence could this bull have com ? Europa and her brothers
+had been a long time playing in the meadow, and had seen no
+cattle, nor other living thing, either there or on the
+neighboring hills.
+
+"Brother Cadmus!" cried Europa, starting up out of the midst of
+the roses and lilies. "Phoenix! Cilix! Where are you all? Help!
+Help! Come and drive away this bull!"
+
+But her brothers were too far off to hear; especially as the
+fright took away Europa's voice, and hindered her from calling
+very loudly. So there she stood, with her pretty mouth wide
+open, as pale as the white lilies that were twisted among the
+other flowers in her garlands.
+
+Nevertheless, it was the suddenness with which she had
+perceived the bull, rather than anything frightful in his
+appearance, that caused Europa so much alarm. On looking at him
+more attentively, she began to see that he was a beautiful
+animal, and even fancied a particularly amiable expression in
+his face. As for his breath--the breath of cattle, you know, is
+always sweet--it was as fragrant as if he had been grazing on
+no other food than rosebuds, or at least, the most delicate of
+clover blossoms. Never before did a bull have such bright and
+tender eyes, and such smooth horns of ivory, as this one. And
+the bull ran little races, and capered sportively around the
+child; so that she quite forgot how big and strong he was, and,
+from the gentleness and playfulness of his actions, soon came
+to consider him as innocent a creature as a pet lamb.
+
+Thus, frightened as she at first was, you might by and by have
+seen Europa stroking the bull's forehead with her small white
+hand, and taking the garlands off her own head to hang them on
+his neck and ivory horns. Then she pulled up some blades of
+grass, and he ate them out of her hand, not as if he were
+hungry, but because he wanted to be friends with the child, and
+took pleasure in eating what she had touched. Well, my stars!
+was there ever such a gentle, sweet, pretty, and amiable
+creature as this bull, and ever such a nice playmate for a
+little girl?
+
+When the animal saw (for the bull had so much intelligence that
+it is really wonderful to think of), when he saw that Europa
+was no longer afraid of him, he grew overjoyed, and could
+hardly contain himself for delight. He frisked about the
+meadow, now here, now there, making sprightly leaps, with as
+little effort as a bird expends in hopping from twig to twig.
+Indeed, his motion was as light as if he were flying through
+the air, and his hoofs seemed hardly to leave their print in
+the grassy soil over which he trod. With his spotless hue, he
+resembled a snow drift, wafted along by the wind. Once he
+galloped so far away that Europa feared lest she might never
+see him again; so, setting up her childish voice, called him
+back.
+
+"Come back, pretty creature!" she cried. "Here is a nice clover
+blossom."
+
+And then it was delightful to witness the gratitude of this
+amiable bull, and how he was so full of joy and thankfulness
+that he capered higher than ever. He came running, and bowed
+his head before Europa, as if he knew her to be a king's
+daughter, or else recognized the important truth that a little
+girl is everybody's queen. And not only did the bull bend his
+neck, he absolutely knelt down at her feet, and made such
+intelligent nods, and other inviting gestures, that Europa
+understood what he meant just as well as if he had put it in so
+many words.
+
+"Come, dear child," was what he wanted to say, "let me give you
+a ride on my back."
+
+At the first thought of such a thing, Europa drew back. But
+then she considered in her wise little head that there could be
+no possible harm in taking just one gallop on the back of this
+docile and friendly animal, who would certainly set her down
+the very instant she desired it. And how it would surprise her
+brothers to see her riding across the green meadow! And what
+merry times they might have, either taking turns for a gallop,
+or clambering on the gentle creature, all four children
+together, and careering round the field with shouts of laughter
+that would be heard as far off as King Agenor's palace!
+
+"I think I will do it," said the child to herself.
+
+And, indeed, why not? She cast a glance around, and caught a
+glimpse of Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, who were still in
+pursuit of the butterfly, almost at the other end of the
+meadow. It would be the quickest way of rejoining them, to get
+upon the white bull's back. She came a step nearer to him
+therefore; and--sociable creature that he was--he showed so
+much joy at this mark of her confidence, that the child could
+not find in her heart to hesitate any longer. Making one bound
+(for this little princess was as active as a squirrel), there
+sat Europa on the beautiful bull, holding an ivory horn in each
+hand, lest she should fall off.
+
+"Softly, pretty bull, softly!" she said, rather frightened at
+what she had done. "Do not gallop too fast."
+
+Having got the child on his back, the animal gave a leap into
+the air, and came down so like a feather that Europa did not
+know when his hoofs touched the ground. He then began a race to
+that part of the flowery plain where her three brothers were,
+and where they had just caught their splendid butterfly. Europa
+screamed with delight; and Phoenix, Cilix, and Cadmus stood
+gaping at the spectacle of their sister mounted on a white
+bull, not knowing whether to be frightened or to wish the same
+good luck for themselves. The gentle and innocent creature (for
+who could possibly doubt that he was so?) pranced round among
+the children as sportively as a kitten. Europa all the while
+looked down upon her brothers, nodding and laughing, but yet
+with a sort of stateliness in her rosy little face. As the bull
+wheeled about to take another gallop across the meadow, the
+child waved her hand, and said, "Good-bye," playfully
+pretending that she was now bound on a distant journey, and
+might not see her brothers again for nobody could tell how
+long.
+
+"Good-bye," shouted Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, all in one
+breath.
+
+But, together with her enjoyment of the sport, there was still
+a little remnant of fear in the child's heart; so that her last
+look at the three boys was a troubled one, and made them feel
+as if their dear sister were really leaving them forever. And
+what do you think the snowy bull did next? Why, he set off, as
+swift as the wind, straight down to the seashore, scampered
+across the sand, took an airy leap, and plunged right in among
+the foaming billows. The white spray rose in a shower over him
+and little Europa, and fell spattering down upon the water.
+
+Then what a scream of terror did the poor child send forth! The
+three brothers screamed manfully, likewise, and ran to the
+shore as fast as their legs would carry them, with Cadmus at
+their head. But it was too late. When they reached the margin
+of the sand, the treacherous animal was already far away in the
+wide blue sea, with only his snowy head and tail emerging, and
+poor little Europa between them, stretching out one hand
+towards her dear brothers, while she grasped the bull's ivory
+horn with the other. And there stood Cadmus, Phoenix, and
+Cilix, gazing at this sad spectacle, through their tears, until
+they could no longer distinguish the bull's snowy head from the
+white-capped billows that seemed to boil up out of the sea's
+depths around him. Nothing more was ever seen of the white
+bull--nothing more of the beautiful child.
+
+This was a mournful story, as you may well think, for the three
+boys to carry home to their parents. King Agenor, their father,
+was the ruler of the whole country; but he loved his little
+daughter Europa better than his kingdom, or than all his other
+children, or than anything else in the world. Therefore, when
+Cadmus and his two brothers came crying home, and told him how
+that a white bull had carried off their sister, and swam with
+her over the sea, the king was quite beside himself with grief
+and rage. Although it was now twilight, and fast growing dark,
+he bade them set out instantly in search of her.
+
+"Never shall you see my face again," he cried, "unless you
+bring me back my little Europa, to gladden me with her smiles
+and her pretty ways. Begone, and enter my presence no more,
+till you come leading her by the hand."
+
+As King Agenor said this, his eyes flashed fire (for he was a
+very passionate king), and he looked so terribly angry that the
+poor boys did not even venture to ask for their suppers, but
+slunk away out of the palace, and only paused on the steps a
+moment to consult whither they should go first. While they were
+standing there, all in dismay, their mother, Queen Telephassa
+(who happened not to be by when they told the story to the
+king), came hurrying after them, and said that she too would go
+in quest of her daughter.
+
+"O, no, mother!" cried the boys. "The night is dark, and there
+is no knowing what troubles and perils we may meet with."
+
+"Alas! my dear children," answered poor Queen Telephassa;
+weeping bitterly, "that is only another reason why I should go
+with you. If I should lose you, too, as well as my little
+Europa, what would become of me!"
+
+"And let me go likewise!" said their playfellow Thasus, who
+came running to join them.
+
+Thasus was the son of a seafaring person in the neighborhood;
+he had been brought up with the young princes, and was their
+intimate friend, and loved Europa very much; so they consented
+that he should accompany them. The whole party, therefore, set
+forth together. Cadmus, Phoenix, Cilix, and Thasus clustered
+round Queen Telephassa, grasping her skirts, and begging her to
+lean upon their shoulders whenever she felt weary. In this
+manner they went down the palace steps, and began a journey,
+which turned out to be a great deal longer than they dreamed
+of. The last that they saw of King Agenor, he came to the door,
+with a servant holding a torch beside him, and called after
+them into the gathering darkness:
+
+"Remember! Never ascend these steps again without the child!"
+
+"Never!" sobbed Queen Telephassa; and the three brothers and
+Thasus answered, "Never! Never! Never! Never!"
+
+And they kept their word. Year after year, King Agenor sat in
+the solitude of his beautiful palace, listening in vain for
+their returning footsteps, hoping to hear the familiar voice of
+the queen, and the cheerful talk of his sons and their
+playfellow Thasus, entering the door together, and the sweet,
+childish accents of little Europa in the midst of them. But so
+long a time went by, that, at last, if they had really come,
+the king would not have known that this was the voice of
+Telephassa, and these the younger voices that used to make such
+joyful echoes, when the children were playing about the palace.
+We must now leave King Agenor to sit on his throne, and must go
+along with Queen Telephassa, and her four youthful companions.
+
+They went on and on, and traveled a long way, and passed over
+mountains and rivers, and sailed over seas. Here, and there,
+and everywhere, they made continual inquiry if any person could
+tell them what had become of Europa. The rustic people, of whom
+they asked this question, paused a little while from their
+labors in the field, and looked very much surprised. They
+thought it strange to behold a woman in the garb of a queen
+(for Telephassa in her haste had forgotten to take off her
+crown and her royal robes), roaming about the country, with four
+lads around her, on such an errand as this seemed to be. But
+nobody could give them any tidings of Europa; nobody had seen a
+little girl dressed like a princess, and mounted on a snow-
+white bull, which galloped as swiftly as the wind.
+
+I cannot tell you how long Queen Telephassa, and Cadmus,
+Phoenix, and Cilix, her three sons, and Thasus, their
+playfellow, went wandering along the highways and bypaths, or
+through the pathless wildernesses of the earth, in this manner.
+But certain it is, that, before they reached any place of rest,
+their splendid garments were quite worn out. They all looked
+very much travel-stained, and would have had the dust of many
+countries on their shoes, if the streams, through which they
+waded, had not washed it all away. When they had been gone a
+year, Telephassa threw away her crown, because it chafed her
+forehead.
+
+"It has given me many a headache," said the poor queen, "and it
+cannot cure my heartache."
+
+As fast as their princely robes got torn and tattered, they
+exchanged them for such mean attire as ordinary people wore. By
+and by, they come to have a wild and homeless aspect; so that
+you would much sooner have taken them for a gypsy family than a
+queen and three princes, and a young nobleman, who had once a
+palace for a home, and a train of servants to do their bidding.
+The four boys grew up to be tall young men, with sunburnt
+faces. Each of them girded on a sword, to defend themselves
+against the perils of the way. When the husbandmen, at whose
+farmhouses they sought hospitality, needed their assistance in
+the harvest field, they gave it willingly; and Queen Telephassa
+(who had done no work in her palace, save to braid silk threads
+with golden ones) came behind them to bind the sheaves. If
+payment was offered, they shook their heads, and only asked for
+tidings of Europa.
+
+"There are bulls enough in my pasture," the old farmers would
+reply; "but I never heard of one like this you tell me of. A
+snow-white bull with a little princess on his back! Ho! ho! I
+ask your pardon, good folks; but there never such a sight seen
+hereabouts."
+
+At last, when his upper lip began to have the down on it,
+Phoenix grew weary of rambling hither and thither to no
+purpose. So one day, when they happened to be passing through a
+pleasant and solitary tract of country, he sat himself down on
+a heap of moss.
+
+"I can go no farther," said Phoenix. "It is a mere foolish
+waste of life, to spend it as we do, always wandering up and
+down, and never coming to any home at nightfall. Our sister is
+lost, and never will be found. She probably perished in the
+sea; or, to whatever shore the white bull may have carried her,
+it is now so many years ago, that there would be neither love
+nor acquaintance between us, should we meet again. My father
+has forbidden us to return to his palace, so I shall build me a
+hut of branches, and dwell here."
+
+"Well, son Phoenix," said Telephassa, sorrowfully, "you have
+grown to be a man, and must do as you judge best. But, for my
+part, I will still go in quest of my poor child."
+
+"And we three will go along with you!" cried Cadmus and Cilix,
+and their faithful friend Thasus.
+
+But, before setting out, they all helped Phoenix to build a
+habitation. When completed, it was a sweet rural bower, roofed
+overhead with an arch of living boughs. Inside there were two
+pleasant rooms, one of which had a soft heap of moss for a bed,
+while the other was furnished with a rustic seat or two,
+curiously fashioned out of the crooked roots of trees. So
+comfortable and home-like did it seem, that Telephassa and her
+three companions could not help sighing, to think that they
+must still roam about the world, instead of spending the
+remainder of their lives in some such cheerful abode as they
+had here built for Phoenix. But, when they bade him farewell,
+Phoenix shed tears, and probably regretted that he was no
+longer to keep them company.
+
+However, he had fixed upon an admirable place to dwell in. And
+by and by there came other people, who chanced to have no
+homes; and, seeing how pleasant a spot it was, they built
+themselves huts in the neighborhood of Phoenix's habitation.
+Thus, before many years went by, a city had grown up there, in
+the center of which was seen a stately palace of marble,
+wherein dwelt Phoenix, clothed in a purple robe, and wearing a
+golden crown upon his head. For the inhabitants of the new
+city, finding that he had royal blood in his veins, had chosen
+him to be their king. The very first decree of state which King
+Phoenix issued was, that, if a maiden happened to arrive in the
+kingdom, mounted on a snow-white bull, and calling herself
+Europa, his subjects should treat her with the greatest
+kindness and respect, and immediately bring her to the palace.
+You may see, by this, that Phoenix's conscience never quite
+ceased to trouble him, for giving up the quest of his dear
+sister, and sitting himself down to be comfortable, while his
+mother and her companions went onward.
+
+But often and often, at the close of a weary day's journey, did
+Telephassa and Cadmus, Cilix, and Thasus, remember the pleasant
+spot in which they had left Phoenix. It was a sorrowful
+prospect for these wanderers, that on the morrow they must
+again set forth, and that, after many nightfalls, they would
+perhaps be no nearer the close of their toilsome pilgrimage
+than now. These thoughts made them all melancholy at times, but
+appeared to torment Cilix more than the rest of the party. At
+length, one morning, when they were taking their staffs in hand
+to set out, he thus addressed them:
+
+"My dear mother, and you, good brother Cadmus, and my friend
+Thasus, methinks we are like people in a dream. There is no
+substance in the life which we are leading. It is such a dreary
+length of time since the white bull carried off my sister
+Europa, that I have quite forgotten how she looked, and the
+tones of her voice, and, indeed, almost doubt whether such a
+little girl ever lived in the world. And whether she once lived
+or no, I am convinced that she no longer survives, and that
+therefore it is the merest folly to waste our own lives and
+happiness in seeking her. Were we to find her, she would now be
+a woman grown, and would look upon us all as strangers. So, to
+tell you the truth, I have resolved to take up my abode here;
+and I entreat you, mother, brother, and friend, to follow my
+example."
+
+"Not I, for one," said Telephassa; although the poor queen,
+firmly as she spoke, was so travel-worn that she could hardly
+put her foot to the ground. "Not I, for one! In the depths of
+my heart, little Europa is still the rosy child who ran to
+gather flowers so many years ago. She has not grown to
+womanhood, nor forgotten me. At noon, at night, journeying
+onward, sitting down to rest, her childish voice is always in
+my ears, calling, 'Mother! mother!' Stop here who may, there is
+no repose for me."
+
+"Nor for me," said Cadmus, "while my dear mother pleases to go
+onward."
+
+And the faithful Thasus, too, was resolved to bear them
+company. They remained with Cilix a few days, however, and
+helped him to build a rustic bower, resembling the one which
+they had formerly built for Phoenix.
+
+When they were bidding him farewell Cilix burst into tears, and
+told his mother that it seemed just as melancholy a dream to
+stay there, in solitude, as to go onward. If she really
+believed that they would ever find Europa, he was willing to
+continue the search with them, even now. But Telephassa bade
+him remain there, and be happy, if his own heart would let him.
+So the pilgrims took their leave of him, and departed, and were
+hardly out of sight before some other wandering people came
+along that way, and saw Cilix's habitation, and were greatly
+delighted with the appearance of the place. There being
+abundance of unoccupied ground in the neighborhood, these
+strangers built huts for themselves, and were soon joined by a
+multitude of new settlers, who quickly formed a city. In the
+middle of it was seen a magnificent palace of colored marble,
+on the balcony of which, every noontide, appeared Cilix, in a
+long purple robe, and with a jeweled crown upon his head; for
+the inhabitants, when they found out that he was a king's son,
+had considered him the fittest of all men to be a king himself.
+
+One of the first acts of King Cilix's government was to send
+out an expedition, consisting of a grave ambassador, and an
+escort of bold and hardy young men, with orders to visit the
+principal kingdoms of the earth, and inquire whether a young
+maiden had passed through those regions, galloping swiftly on a
+white bull. It is, therefore, plain to my mind, that Cilix
+secretly blamed himself for giving up the search for Europa, as
+long as he was able to put one foot before the other.
+
+As for Telephassa, and Cadmus, and the good Thasus, it grieves
+me to think of them, still keeping up that weary pilgrimage.
+The two young men did their best for the poor queen, helping
+her over the rough places, often carrying her across rivulets
+in their faithful arms and seeking to shelter her at nightfall,
+even when they themselves lay on the ground. Sad, sad it was to
+hear them asking of every passer-by if he had seen Europa, so
+long after the white bull had carried her away. But, though the
+gray years thrust themselves between, and made the child's
+figure dim in their remembrance, neither of these true-hearted
+three ever dreamed of giving up the search.
+
+One morning, however, poor Thasus found that he had sprained
+his ankle, and could not possibly go a step farther.
+
+"After a few days, to be sure," said he, mournfully, "I might
+make shift to hobble along with a stick. But that would only
+delay you, and perhaps hinder you from finding dear little
+Europa, after all your pains and trouble. Do you go forward,
+therefore, my beloved companions, and leave me to follow as I
+may."
+
+"Thou hast been a true friend, dear Thasus," said Queen
+Telephassa, kissing his forehead. "Being neither my son, nor
+the brother of our lost Europa, thou hast shown thyself truer
+to me and her than Phoenix and Cilix did, whom we have left
+behind us. Without thy loving help, and that of my son Cadmus,
+my limbs could not have borne me half so far as this. Now, take
+thy rest, and be at peace. For--and it is the first time I have
+owned it to myself--I begin to question whether we shall ever
+find my beloved daughter in this world."
+
+Saying this, the poor queen shed tears, because it was a
+grievous trial to the mother's heart to confess that her hopes
+were growing faint. From that day forward, Cadmus noticed that
+she never traveled with the same alacrity of spirit that had
+heretofore supported her. Her weight was heavier upon his arm.
+
+Before setting out, Cadmus helped Thasus build a bower; while
+Telephassa, being too infirm to give any great assistance,
+advised them how to fit it up and furnish it, so that it might
+be as comfortable as a hut of branches could. Thasus, however,
+did not spend all his days in this green bower. For it happened
+to him, as to Phoenix and Cilix, that other homeless people
+visited the spot, and liked it, and built themselves
+habitations in the neighborhood. So here, in the course of a
+few years, was another thriving city, with a red freestone
+palace in the center of it, where Thasus sat upon a throne,
+doing justice to the people, with a purple robe over his
+shoulders, a sceptre in his hand, and a crown upon his head.
+The inhabitants had made him king, not for the sake of any
+royal blood (for none was in his veins), but because Thasus was
+an upright, true-hearted, and courageous man, and therefore fit
+to rule.
+
+But when the affairs of his kingdom were all settled, King
+Thasus laid aside his purple robe and crown, and sceptre, and
+bade his worthiest subjects distribute justice to the people in
+his stead. Then, grasping the pilgrim's staff that had
+supported him so long, he set forth again, hoping still to
+discover some hoof-mark of the snow-white bull, some trace of
+the vanished child. He returned after a lengthened absence, and
+sat down wearily upon his throne. To his latest hour,
+nevertheless, King Thasus showed his true-hearted remembrance
+of Europa, by ordering that a fire should always be kept
+burning in his palace, and a bath steaming hot, and food ready
+to be served up, and a bed with snow-white sheets, in case the
+maiden should arrive, and require immediate refreshment. And,
+though Europa never came, the good Thasus had the blessings of
+many a poor traveler, who profited by the food and lodging
+which were meant for the little playmate of the king's boyhood.
+
+Telephassa and Cadmus were now pursuing their weary way, with
+no companion but each other. The queen leaned heavily upon her
+son's arm, and could walk only a few miles a day. But for all
+her weakness and weariness, she would not be persuaded to give
+up the search. It was enough to bring tears into the eyes of
+bearded men to hear the melancholy tone with which she inquired
+of every stranger whether he could not tell her any news of the
+lost child.
+
+"Have you seen a little girl--no, no, I mean a young maiden of
+full growth--passing by this way, mounted on a snow-white bull,
+which gallops as swiftly as the wind?"
+
+"We have seen no such wondrous sight," the people would reply;
+and very often, taking Cadmus aside, they whispered to him, "Is
+this stately and sad-looking woman your mother? Surely she is
+not in her right mind; and you ought to take her home, and make
+her comfortable, and do your best to get this dream out of her
+fancy."
+
+"It is no dream," said Cadmus. "Everything else is a dream,
+save that."
+
+But, one day, Telephassa seemed feebler than usual, and leaned
+almost her whole weight on the arm of Cadmus, and walked more
+slowly than ever before. At last they reached a solitary spot,
+where she told her son that she must needs lie down, and take a
+good long rest.
+
+"A good long rest!" she repeated, looking Cadmus tenderly in
+the face. "A good long rest, thou dearest one!"
+
+"As long as you please, dear mother," answered Cadmus.
+
+Telephassa bade him sit down on the turf beside her, and then
+she took his hand.
+
+"My son," said she, fixing her dim eyes most lovingly upon him,
+"this rest that I speak of will be very long indeed! You must
+not wait till it is finished. Dear Cadmus, you do not
+comprehend me. You must make a grave here, and lay your
+mother's weary frame into it. My pilgrimage is over."
+
+Cadmus burst into tears, and, for a long time, refused to
+believe that his dear mother was now to be taken from him. But
+Telephassa reasoned with him, and kissed him, and at length
+made him discern that it was better for her spirit to pass away
+out of the toil, the weariness, and grief, and disappointment
+which had burdened her on earth, ever since the child was lost.
+He therefore repressed his sorrow, and listened to her last
+words.
+
+"Dearest Cadmus," said she, "thou hast been the truest son that
+ever mother had, and faithful to the very last. Who else would
+have borne with my infirmities as thou hast! It is owing to thy
+care, thou tenderest child, that my grave was not dug long
+years ago, in some valley, or on some hillside, that lies far,
+far behind us. It is enough. Thou shalt wander no more on this
+hopeless search. But, when thou hast laid thy mother in the
+earth, then go, my son, to Delphi, and inquire of the oracle
+what thou shalt do next."
+
+"O mother, mother," cried Cadmus, "couldst thou but have seen
+my sister before this hour!"
+
+"It matters little now," answered Telephassa, and there was a
+smile upon her face. "I go now to the better world, and, sooner
+or later, shall find my daughter there."
+
+I will not sadden you, my little hearers, with telling how
+Telephassa died and was buried, but will only say, that her
+dying smile grew brighter, instead of vanishing from her dead
+face; so that Cadmus left convinced that, at her very first
+step into the better world, she had caught Europa in her arms.
+He planted some flowers on his mother's grave, and left them to
+grow there, and make the place beautiful, when he should be far
+away.
+
+After performing this last sorrowful duty, he set forth alone,
+and took the road towards the famous oracle of Delphi, as
+Telephassa had advised him. On his way thither, he still
+inquired of most people whom he met whether they had seen
+Europa; for, to say the truth, Cadmus had grown so accustomed
+to ask the question, that it came to his lips as readily as a
+remark about the weather. He received various answers. Some
+told him one thing, and some another. Among the rest, a mariner
+affirmed, that, many years before, in a distant country, he had
+heard a rumor about a white bull, which came swimming across
+the sea with a child on his back, dressed up in flowers that
+were blighted by the sea water. He did not know what had become
+of the child or the bull; and Cadmus suspected, indeed, by a
+queer twinkle in the mariner's eyes, that he was putting a joke
+upon him, and had never really heard anything about the matter.
+
+Poor Cadmus found it more wearisome to travel alone than to
+bear all his dear mother's weight, while she had kept him
+company. His heart, you will understand, was now so heavy that
+it seemed impossible, sometimes, to carry it any farther. But
+his limbs were strong and active, and well accustomed to
+exercise. He walked swiftly along, thinking of King Agenor and
+Queen Telephassa, and his brothers, and the friendly Thasus,
+all of whom he had left behind him, at one point of his
+pilgrimage or another, and never expected to see them any more.
+Full of these remembrances, he came within sight of a lofty
+mountain, which the people thereabouts told him was called
+Parnassus. On the slope of Mount Parnassus was the famous
+Delphi, whither Cadmus was going.
+
+This Delphi was supposed to be the very midmost spot of the
+whole world. The place of the oracle was a certain cavity in
+the mountain side, over which, when Cadmus came thither, he
+found a rude bower of branches. It reminded him of those which
+he had helped to build for Phoenix and Cilix, and afterwards
+for Thasus. In later times, when multitudes of people came from
+great distances to put questions to the oracle, a spacious
+temple of marble was erected over the spot. But in the days of
+Cadmus, as I have told you, there was only this rustic bower,
+with its abundance of green foliage, and a tuft of shrubbery,
+that ran wild over the mysterious hole in the hillside.
+
+When Cadmus had thrust a passage through the tangled boughs,
+and made his way into the bower, he did not at first discern
+the half-hidden cavity. But soon he felt a cold stream of air
+rushing out of it, with so much force that it shook the
+ringlets on his cheek. Pulling away the shrubbery which
+clustered over the hole, he bent forward, and spoke in a
+distinct but reverential tone, as if addressing some unseen
+personage inside of the mountain.
+
+"Sacred oracle of Delphi," said he, "whither shall I go next in
+quest of my dear sister Europa?"
+
+There was at first a deep silence, and then a rushing sound, or
+a noise like a long sigh, proceeding out of the interior of the
+earth. This cavity, you must know, was looked upon as a sort of
+fountain of truth, which sometimes gushed out in audible words;
+although, for the most part, these words were such a riddle
+that they might just as well have staid at the bottom of the
+hole. But Cadmus was more fortunate than many others who went
+to Delphi in search of truth. By and by, the rushing noise
+began to sound like articulate language. It repeated, over and
+over again, the following sentence, which, after all, was so
+like the vague whistle of a blast of air, that Cadmus really
+did not quite know whether it meant anything or not:
+
+"Seek her no more! Seek her no more! Seek her no more!"
+
+"What, then, shall I do?" asked Cadmus.
+
+For, ever since he was a child, you know, it had been the great
+object of his life to find his sister. From the very hour that
+he left following the butterfly in the meadow, near his
+father's palace, he had done his best to follow Europa, over
+land and sea. And now, if he must give up the search, he seemed
+to have no more business in the world.
+
+But again the sighing gust of air grew into something like a
+hoarse voice.
+
+"Follow the cow!" it said. "Follow the cow! Follow the cow!"
+
+And when these words had been repeated until Cadmus was tired
+of hearing them (especially as he could not imagine what cow it
+was, or why he was to follow her), the gusty hole gave vent to
+another sentence.
+
+"Where the stray cow lies down, there is your home."
+
+These words were pronounced but a single time, and died away
+into a whisper before Cadmus was fully satisfied that he had
+caught the meaning. He put other questions, but received no
+answer; only the gust of wind sighed continually out of the
+cavity, and blew the withered leaves rustling along the ground
+before it.
+
+"Did there really come any words out of the hole?" thought
+Cadmus; "or have I been dreaming all this while?"
+
+He turned away from the oracle, and thought himself no wiser
+than when he came thither. Caring little what might happen to
+him, he took the first path that offered itself, and went along
+at a sluggish pace; for, having no object in view, nor any
+reason to go one way more than another, it would certainly have
+been foolish to make haste. Whenever he met anybody, the old
+question was at his tongue's end.
+
+"Have you seen a beautiful maiden, dressed like a king's
+daughter, and mounted on a snow-white bull, that gallops as
+swiftly as the wind?"
+
+But, remembering what the oracle had said, he only half uttered
+the words, and then mumbled the rest indistinctly; and from his
+confusion, people must have imagined that this handsome young
+man had lost his wits.
+
+I know not how far Cadmus had gone, nor could he himself have
+told you, when at no great distance before him, he beheld a
+brindled cow. She was lying down by the wayside, and quietly
+chewing her cud; nor did she take any notice of the young man
+until he had approached pretty nigh. Then, getting leisurely
+upon her feet, and giving her head a gentle toss, she began to
+move along at a moderate pace, often pausing just long enough
+to crop a mouthful of grass. Cadmus loitered behind, whistling
+idly to himself, and scarcely noticing the cow; until the
+thought occurred to him, whether this could possibly be the
+animal which, according to the oracle's response, was to serve
+him for a guide. But he smiled at himself for fancying such a
+thing. He could not seriously think that this was the cow,
+because she went along so quietly, behaving just like any other
+cow. Evidently she neither knew nor cared so much as a wisp of
+hay about Cadmus, and was only thinking how to get her living
+along the wayside, where the herbage was green and fresh.
+Perhaps she was going home to be milked.
+
+"Cow, cow, cow!" cried Cadmus. "Hey, Brindle, hey! Stop, my
+good cow!"
+
+He wanted to come up with the cow, so as to examine her, and
+see if she would appear to know him, or whether there were any
+peculiarities to distinguish her from a thousand other cows,
+whose only business is to fill the milk-pail, and sometimes
+kick it over. But still the brindled cow trudged on, whisking
+her tail to keep the flies away, and taking as little notice of
+Cadmus as she well could. If he walked slowly, so did the cow,
+and seized the opportunity to graze. If he quickened his pace,
+the cow went just so much the faster; and once, when Cadmus
+tried to catch her by running, she threw out her heels, stuck
+her tail straight on end, and set off at a gallop, looking as
+queerly as cows generally do, while putting themselves to their
+speed.
+
+When Cadmus saw that it was impossible to come up with her, he
+walked on moderately, as before. The cow, too, went leisurely
+on, without looking behind. Wherever the grass was greenest,
+there she nibbled a mouthful or two. Where a brook glistened
+brightly across the path, there the cow drank, and breathed a
+comfortable sigh, and drank again. and trudged onward at the
+pace that best suited herself and Cadmus.
+
+"I do believe," thought Cadmus, "that this may be the cow that
+was foretold me. If it be the one, I suppose she will lie down
+somewhere hereabouts."
+
+Whether it were the oracular cow or some other one, it did not
+seem reasonable that she should travel a great way farther. So,
+whenever they reached a particularly pleasant spot on a breezy
+hillside, or in a sheltered vale, or flowery meadow, on the
+shore of a calm lake, or along the bank of a clear stream,
+Cadmus looked eagerly around to see if the situation would suit
+him for a home. But still, whether he liked the place or no,
+the brindled cow never offered to lie down. On she went at the
+quiet pace of a cow going homeward to the barn yard; and, every
+moment, Cadmus expected to see a milkmaid approaching with a
+pail, or a herdsman running to head the stray animal, and turn
+her back towards the pasture. But no milkmaid came; no herdsman
+drove her back; and Cadmus followed the stray Brindle till he
+was almost ready to drop down with fatigue.
+
+"O brindled cow," cried he, in a tone of despair, "do you never
+mean to stop?"
+
+He had now grown too intent on following her to think of
+lagging behind, however long the way, and whatever might be his
+fatigue. Indeed, it seemed as if there were something about the
+animal that bewitched people. Several persons who happened to
+see the brindled cow, and Cadmus following behind, began to
+trudge after her, precisely as he did. Cadmus was glad of
+somebody to converse with, and therefore talked very freely to
+these good people. He told them all his adventures, and how he
+had left King Agenor in his palace, and Phoenix at one place,
+and Cilix at another, and Thasus at a third, and his dear
+mother, Queen Telephassa, under a flowery sod; so that now he
+was quite alone, both friendless and homeless. He mentioned,
+likewise, that the oracle had bidden him be guided by a cow,
+and inquired of the strangers whether they supposed that this
+brindled animal could be the one.
+
+"Why, 'tis a very wonderful affair," answered one of his new
+companions. "I am pretty well acquainted with the ways of
+cattle, and I never knew a cow, of her own accord, to go so far
+without stopping. If my legs will let me, I'll never leave
+following the beast till she lies down."
+
+"Nor I!" said a second.
+
+"Nor I!" cried a third. "If she goes a hundred miles farther, I
+am determined to see the end of it."
+
+The secret of it was, you must know, that the cow was an
+enchanted cow, and that, without their being conscious of it,
+she threw some of her enchantment over everybody that took so
+much as half a dozen steps behind her. They could not possibly
+help following her, though all the time they fancied themselves
+doing it of their own accord. The cow was by no means very nice
+in choosing her path; so that sometimes they had to scramble
+over rocks, or wade through mud and mire, and all in a terribly
+bedraggled condition, and tired to death, and very hungry, into
+the bargain. What a weary business it was!
+
+But still they kept trudging stoutly forward, and talking as
+they went. The strangers grew very fond of Cadmus, and resolved
+never to leave him, but to help him build a city wherever the
+cow might lie down. In the center of it there should be a noble
+palace, in which Cadmus might dwell, and be their king, with a
+throne, a crown, a sceptre, a purple robe, and everything else
+that a king ought to have; for in him there was the royal
+blood, and the royal heart, and the head that knew how to rule.
+
+While they were talking of these schemes, and beguiling the
+tediousness of the way with laying out the plan of the new
+city, one of the company happened to look at the cow.
+
+"Joy! joy!" cried he, clapping his hands. "Brindle is going to
+lie down."
+
+They all looked; and, sure enough, the cow had stopped, and was
+staring leisurely about her, as other cows do when on the point
+of lying down. And slowly, slowly did she recline herself on
+the soft grass, first bending her forelegs, and then crouching
+her hind ones. When Cadmus and his companions came up with her,
+there was the brindled cow taking her ease, chewing her cud,
+and looking them quietly in the face; as if this was just the
+spot she had been seeking for, and as if it were all a matter
+of course.
+
+"This, then," said Cadmus, gazing around him, "this is to be my
+home."
+
+It was a fertile and lovely plain, with great trees flinging
+their sun-speckled shadows over it, and hills fencing it in
+from the rough weather At no great distance, they beheld a
+river gleaming in the sunshine. A home feeling stole into the
+heart of poor Cadmus. He was very glad to know that here he
+might awake in the morning without the necessity of putting on
+his dusty sandals to travel farther and farther. The days and
+the years would pass over him, and find him still in this
+pleasant spot. If he could have had his brothers with him, and
+his friend Thasus, and could have seen his dear mother under a
+roof of his own, he might here have been happy after all their
+disappointments. Some day or other, too, his sister Europa
+might have come quietly to the door of his home, and smiled
+round upon the familiar faces. But, indeed, since there was no
+hope of regaining the friends of his boyhood, or ever seeing
+his dear sister again, Cadmus resolved to make himself happy
+with these new companions, who had grown so fond of him while
+following the cow.
+
+"Yes, my friends," said he to them, "this is to be our home.
+Here we will build our habitations. The brindled cow, which has
+led us hither, will supply us with milk. We will cultivate the
+neighboring soil. and lead an innocent and happy life."
+
+His companions joyfully assented to this plan; and, in the
+first place, being very hungry and thirsty, they looked about
+them for the means of providing a comfortable meal. Not far off
+they saw a tuft of trees, which appeared as if there might be a
+spring of water beneath them. They went thither to fetch some,
+leaving Cadmus stretched on the ground along with the brindled
+cow; for, now that he had found a place of rest, it seemed as
+if all the weariness of his pilgrimage, ever since he left King
+Agenor's palace, had fallen upon him at once. But his new
+friends had not long been gone, when he was suddenly startled
+by cries, shouts, and screams, and the noise of a terrible
+struggle, and in the midst of it all, a most awful hissing,
+which went right through his ears like a rough saw.
+
+Running towards the tuft of trees, he beheld the head and fiery
+eyes of an immense serpent or dragon, with the widest jaws that
+ever a dragon had, and a vast many rows of horribly sharp
+teeth. Before Cadmus could reach the spot, this pitiless
+reptile had killed his poor companions, and was busily
+devouring them, making but a mouthful of each man.
+
+It appears that the fountain of water was enchanted, and that
+the dragon had been set to guard it, so that no mortal might
+ever quench his thirst there. As the neighboring inhabitants
+carefully avoided the spot, it was now a long time (not less
+than a hundred years or thereabouts) since the monster had
+broken his fast; and, as was natural enough, his appetite had
+grown to be enormous, and was not half satisfied by the poor
+people whom he had just eaten up. When he caught sight of
+Cadmus, therefore, he set up another abominable hiss, and flung
+back his immense jaws, until his mouth looked like a great red
+cavern, at the farther end of which were seen the legs of his
+last victim, whom he had hardly had time to swallow.
+
+But Cadmus was so enraged at the destruction of his friends
+that he cared neither for the size of the dragon's jaws nor for
+his hundreds of sharp teeth. Drawing his sword, he rushed at
+the monster, and flung himself right into his cavernous mouth.
+This bold method of attacking him took the dragon by surprise;
+for, in fact, Cadmus had leaped so far down into his throat,
+that the rows of terrible teeth could not close upon him, nor
+do him the least harm in the world. Thus, though the struggle
+was a tremendous one, and though the dragon shattered the tuft
+of trees into small splinters by the lashing of his tail, yet,
+as Cadmus was all the while slashing and stabbing at his very
+vitals, it was not long before the scaly wretch bethought
+himself of slipping away. He had not gone his length, however,
+when the brave Cadmus gave him a sword thrust that finished the
+battle; and creeping out of the gateway of the creature's jaws,
+there he beheld him still wriggling his vast bulk, although
+there was no longer life enough in him to harm a little child.
+
+But do not you suppose that it made Cadmus sorrowful to think
+of the melancholy fate which had befallen those poor, friendly
+people, who had followed the cow along with him? It seemed as
+if he were doomed to lose everybody whom he loved, or to see
+them perish in one way or another. And here he was, after all
+his toils and troubles, in a solitary place, with not a single
+human being to help him build a hut.
+
+"What shall I do?" cried he aloud. "It were better for me to
+have been devoured by the dragon, as my poor companions were."
+
+"Cadmus," said a voice but whether it came from above or below
+him, or whether it spoke within his own breast, the young man
+could not tell--"Cadmus, pluck out the dragon's teeth, and
+plant them in the earth."
+
+This was a strange thing to do; nor was it very easy, I should
+imagine, to dig out all those deep-rooted fangs from the dead
+dragon's jaws. But Cadmus toiled and tugged, and after pounding
+the monstrous head almost to pieces with a great stone, he at
+last collected as many teeth as might have filled a bushel or
+two. The next thing was to plant them. This, likewise, was a
+tedious piece of work, especially as Cadmus was already
+exhausted with killing the dragon and knocking his head to
+pieces, and had nothing to dig the earth with, that I know of,
+unless it were his sword blade. Finally, however, a
+sufficiently large tract oœ ground was turned up, and sown with
+this new kind of seed; although half of the dragon's teeth
+still remained to be planted some other day.
+
+Cadmus, quite out of breath, stood leaning upon his sword, and
+wondering what was to happen next. He had waited but a few
+moments, when he began to see a sight, which was as great a
+marvel as the most marvelous thing I ever told you about.
+
+The sun was shining slantwise over the field, and showed all
+the moist, dark soil just like any other newly-planted piece of
+ground. All at once, Cadmus fancied he saw something glisten
+very brightly, first at one spot, then at another, and then at
+a hundred and a thousand spots together. Soon he perceived them
+to be the steel heads of spears, sprouting up everywhere like
+so many stalks of grain, and continually growing taller and
+taller. Next appeared a vast number of bright sword blades,
+thrusting themselves up in the same way. A moment afterwards,
+the whole surface of the ground was broken by a multitude of
+polished brass helmets, coming up like a crop of enormous
+beans. So rapidly did they grow, that Cadmus now discerned the
+fierce countenance of a man beneath every one. In short, before
+he had time to think what a wonderful affair it was, he beheld
+an abundant harvest of what looked like human beings, armed
+with helmets and breastplates, shields, swords, and spears; and
+before they were well out of the earth, they brandished their
+weapons, and clashed them one against another, seeming to
+think, little while as they had yet lived, that they had wasted
+too much of life without a battle. Every tooth of the dragon
+had produced one of these sons of deadly mischief.
+
+Up sprouted also a great many trumpeters; and with the first
+breath that they drew, they put their brazen trumpets to their
+lips, and sounded a tremendous and ear-shattering blast, so
+that the whole space, just now so quiet and solitary,
+reverberated with the clash and clang of arms, the bray of
+warlike music, and the shouts of angry men. So enraged did they
+all look, that Cadmus fully expected them to put the whole
+world to the sword. How fortunate would it be for a great
+conqueror, if he could get a bushel of the dragon's teeth to
+sow!
+
+"Cadmus," said the same voice which he had before heard, "throw
+a stone into the midst of the armed men."
+
+So Cadmus seized a large stone, and flinging it into the middle
+of the earth army, saw it strike the breastplate of a gigantic
+and fierce-looking warrior. Immediately on feeling the blow, he
+seemed to take it for granted that somebody had struck him;
+and, uplifting his weapon, he smote his next neighbor a blow
+that cleft his helmet asunder, and stretched him on the ground.
+In an instant, those nearest the fallen warrior began to strike
+at one another with their swords, and stab with their spears.
+The confusion spread wider and wider. Each man smote down his
+brother, and was himself smitten down before he had time to
+exult in his victory. The trumpeters, all the while, blew their
+blasts shriller and shriller; each soldier shouted a battle
+cry, and often fell with it on his lips. It was the strangest
+spectacle of causeless wrath, and of mischief for no good end,
+that had ever been witnessed; but, after all, it was neither
+more foolish nor more wicked than a thousand battles that have
+since been fought, in which men have slain their brothers with
+just as little reason as these children of the dragon's teeth.
+It ought to be considered, too, that the dragon people were
+made for nothing else; whereas other mortals were born to love
+and help one another.
+
+Well, this memorable battle continued to rage until the ground
+was strewn with helmeted heads that had been cut off. Of all
+the thousands that began the fight, there were only five left
+standing. These now rushed from different parts of the field,
+and, meeting in the middle of it, clashed their swords, and
+struck at each other's hearts as fiercely as ever.
+
+"Cadmus," said the voice again, "bid those five warriors
+sheathe their swords. They will help you to build the city."
+
+Without hesitating an instant, Cadmus stepped forward, with the
+aspect of a king and a leader, and extending his drawn sword
+amongst them, spoke to the warriors in a stern and commanding
+voice.
+
+"Sheathe your weapons!" said he.
+
+And forthwith, feeling themselves bound to obey him, the five
+remaining sons of the dragon's teeth made him a military salute
+with their swords, returned them to the scabbards, and stood
+before Cadmus in a rank, eyeing him as soldiers eye their
+captain, while awaiting the word of command.
+
+These five men had probably sprung from the biggest of the
+dragon's teeth, and were the boldest and strongest of the whole
+army. They were almost giants indeed, and had good need to be
+so, else they never could have lived through so terrible a
+fight. They still had a very furious look, and, if Cadmus
+happened to glance aside, would glare at one another, with fire
+flashing out of their eyes. It was strange, too, to observe how
+the earth, out of which they had so lately grown, was
+incrusted, here and there, on their bright breastplates, and
+even, begrimed their faces; just as you may have seen it
+clinging to beets and carrots, when pulled out of their native
+soil. Cadmus hardly knew whether to consider them as men, or
+some odd kind of vegetable; although, on the whole, he
+concluded that there was human nature in them, because they
+were so fond of trumpets and weapons, and so ready to shed
+blood.
+
+They looked him earnestly in the face, waiting for his next
+order, and evidently desiring no other employment than to
+follow him from one battlefield to another, all over the wide
+world. But Cadmus was wiser than these earth-born creatures,
+with the dragon's fierceness in them, and knew better how to
+use their strength and hardihood.
+
+"Come!" said he. "You are sturdy fellows. Make yourselves
+useful! Quarry some stones with those great swords of yours,
+and help me to build a city."
+
+The five soldiers grumbled a little, and muttered that it was
+their business to overthrow cities, not to build them up. But
+Cadmus looked at them with a stern eye, and spoke to them in a
+tone of authority, so that they knew him for their master, and
+never again thought of disobeying his commands. They set to
+work in good earnest, and toiled so diligently, that, in a very
+short time, a city began to make its appearance. At first, to
+be sure, the workmen showed a quarrelsome disposition. Like
+savage beasts, they would doubtless have done one another a
+mischief, if Cadmus had not kept watch over them, and quelled
+the fierce old serpent that lurked in their hearts, when he saw
+it gleaming out of their wild eyes. But, in course of time,
+they got accustomed to honest labor, and had sense enough to
+feel that there was more true enjoyment in living at peace, and
+doing good to one's neighbor, than in striking at him with a
+two-edged sword. It may not be too much to hope that the rest
+of mankind will by and by grow as wise and peaceable as these
+five earth-begrimed warriors, who sprang from the dragon's
+teeth.
+
+And now the city was built, and there was a home in it for each
+of the workmen. But the palace of Cadmus was not yet erected,
+because they had left it till the last, meaning to introduce
+all the new improvements of architecture, and make it very
+commodious, as well as stately and beautiful. After finishing
+the rest of their labors, they all went to bed betimes, in
+order to rise in the gray of the morning, and get at least the
+foundation of the edifice laid before nightfall. But, when
+Cadmus arose, and took his way towards the site where the
+palace was to be built, followed by his five sturdy workmen
+marching all in a row, what do you think he saw?
+
+What should it be but the most magnificent palace that had ever
+been seen in the world. It was built of marble and other
+beautiful kinds of stone, and rose high into the air, with a
+splendid dome and a portico along the front, and carved
+pillars, and everything else that befitted the habitation of a
+mighty king. It had grown up out of the earth in almost as
+short a time as it had taken the armed host to spring from the
+dragon's teeth; and what made the matter more strange, no seed
+of this stately edifice ever had been planted.
+
+When the five workmen beheld the dome, with the morning
+sunshine making it look golden and glorious, they gave a great
+shout.
+
+"Long live King Cadmus," they cried, "in his beautiful palace."
+
+And the new king, with his five faithful followers at his
+heels, shouldering their pickaxes and marching in a rank (for
+they still had a soldier-like sort of behavior, as their nature
+was), ascended the palace steps. Halting at the entrance, they
+gazed through a long vista of lofty pillars, that were ranged
+from end to end of a great hall. At the farther extremity of
+this hall, approaching slowly towards him, Cadmus beheld a
+female figure, wonderfully beautiful, and adorned with a royal
+robe, and a crown of diamonds over her golden ringlets, and the
+richest necklace that ever a queen wore. His heart thrilled
+with delight. He fancied it his long-lost sister Europa, now
+grown to womanhood, coming to make him happy, and to repay him
+with her sweet sisterly affection, for all those weary
+wonderings in quest of her since he left King Agenor's
+palace--for the tears that he had shed, on parting with
+Phoenix, and Cilix, and Thasus--for the heart-breakings that
+had made the whole world seem dismal to him over his dear
+mother's grave.
+
+But, as Cadmus advanced to meet the beautiful stranger, he saw
+that her features were unknown to him, although, in the little
+time that it required to tread along the hall, he had already
+felt a sympathy betwixt himself and her.
+
+"No, Cadmus," said the same voice that had spoken to him in the
+field of the armed men, "this is not that dear sister Europa
+whom you have sought so faithfully all over the wide world.
+This is Harmonia, a daughter of the sky, who is given you
+instead of sister, and brothers, and friend, and mother. You
+will find all those dear ones in her alone."
+
+So King Cadmus dwelt in the palace, with his new friend
+Harmonia, and found a great deal of comfort in his magnificent
+abode, but would doubtless have found as much, if not more, in
+the humblest cottage by the wayside. Before many years went by,
+there was a group of rosy little children (but how they came
+thither has always been a mystery to me) sporting in the great
+hall, and on the marble steps of the palace, and running
+joyfully to meet King Cadmus when affairs of state left him at
+leisure to play with them. They called him father, and Queen
+Harmonia mother. The five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth
+grew very fond of these small urchins, and were never weary of
+showing them how to shoulder sticks, flourish wooden swords,
+and march in military order, blowing a penny trumpet, or
+beating an abominable rub-a-dub upon a little drum.
+
+But King Cadmus, lest there should be too much of the dragon's
+tooth in his children's disposition, used to find time from his
+kingly duties to teach them their A B C--which he invented for
+their benefit, and for which many little people, I am afraid,
+are not half so grateful to him as they ought to be.
+
+
+
+CIRCE'S PALACE.
+
+Some of you have heard, no doubt, of the wise King Ulysses, and
+how he went to the siege of Troy, and how, after that famous
+city was taken and burned, he spent ten long years in trying to
+get back again to his own little kingdom of Ithaca. At one time
+in the course of this weary voyage, he arrived at an island
+that looked very green and pleasant, but the name of which was
+unknown to him. For, only a little while before he came
+thither, he had met with a terrible hurricane, or rather a
+great many hurricanes at once, which drove his fleet of vessels
+into a strange part of the sea, where neither himself nor any
+of his mariners had ever sailed. This misfortune was entirely
+owing to the foolish curiosity of his shipmates, who, while
+Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some very bulky leathern bags,
+in which they supposed a valuable treasure to be concealed. But
+in each of these stout bags, King Aeolus, the ruler of the
+winds, had tied up a tempest, and had given it to Ulysses to
+keep in order that he might be sure of a favorable passage
+homeward to Ithaca; and when the strings were loosened, forth
+rushed the whistling blasts, like air out of a blown bladder,
+whitening the sea with foam, and scattering the vessels nobody
+could tell whither.
+
+Immediately after escaping from this peril, a still greater one
+had befallen him. Scudding before the hurricane, he reached a
+place, which, as he afterwards found, was called Laestrygonia,
+where some monstrous giants had eaten up many of his
+companions, and had sunk every one of his vessels, except that
+in which he himself sailed, by flinging great masses of rock at
+them, from the cliffs along the shore. After going through such
+troubles as these, you cannot wonder that King Ulysses was glad
+to moor his tempest-beaten bark in a quiet cove of the green
+island, which I began with telling you about. But he had
+encountered so many dangers from giants, and one-eyed Cyclops,
+and monsters of the sea and land, that he could not help
+dreading some mischief, even in this pleasant and seemingly
+solitary spot. For two days, therefore, the poor weather-worn
+voyagers kept quiet, and either staid on board of their vessel,
+or merely crept along under the cliffs that bordered the shore;
+and to keep themselves alive, they dug shellfish out of the
+sand, and sought for any little rill of fresh water that might
+be running towards the sea.
+
+Before the two days were spent, they grew very weary of this
+kind of life; for the followers of King Ulysses, as you will
+find it important to remember, were terrible gormandizers, and
+pretty sure to grumble if they missed their regulars meals, and
+their irregular ones besides. Their stock of provisions was
+quite exhausted, and even the shellfish began to get scarce, so
+that they had now to choose between starving to death or
+venturing into the interior of the island, where perhaps some
+huge three-headed dragon, or other horrible monster, had his
+den. Such misshapen creatures were very numerous in those days;
+and nobody ever expected to make a voyage, or take a journey,
+without running more or less risk of being devoured by them.
+
+But King Ulysses was a bold man as well as a prudent one; and
+on the third morning he determined to discover what sort of a
+place the island was, and whether it were possible to obtain a
+supply of food for the hungry mouths of his companions. So,
+taking a spear in his hand, he clambered to the summit of a
+cliff, and gazed round about him. At a distance, towards the
+center of the island, he beheld the stately towers of what
+seemed to be a palace, built of snow-white marble, and rising
+in the midst of a grove of lofty trees. The thick branches of
+these trees stretched across the front of the edifice, and more
+than half concealed it, although, from the portion which he
+saw, Ulysses judged it to be spacious and exceedingly
+beautiful, and probably the residence of some great nobleman or
+prince. A blue smoke went curling up from the chimney, and was
+almost the pleasantest part of the spectacle to Ulysses. For,
+from the abundance of this smoke, it was reasonable to conclude
+that there was a good fire in the kitchen, and that, at
+dinner-time, a plentiful banquet would be served up to the
+inhabitants of the palace, and to whatever guests might happen
+to drop in.
+
+With so agreeable a prospect before him, Ulysses fancied that
+he could not do better than go straight to the palace gate, and
+tell the master of it that there was a crew of poor shipwrecked
+mariners, not far off, who had eaten nothing for a day or two,
+save a few clams and oysters, and would therefore be thankful
+for a little food. And the prince or nobleman must be a very
+stingy curmudgeon, to be sure, if, at least, when his own
+dinner was over, he would not bid them welcome to the broken
+victuals from the table.
+
+Pleasing himself with this idea, King Ulysses had made a few
+steps in the direction of the palace, when there was a great
+twittering and chirping from the branch of a neighboring tree.
+A moment afterwards, a bird came flying towards him, and
+hovered in the air, so as almost to brush his face with its
+wings. It was a very pretty little bird, with purple wings and
+body, and yellow legs, and a circle of golden feathers round
+its neck, and on its head a golden tuft, which looked like a
+king's crown in miniature. Ulysses tried to catch the bird. But
+it fluttered nimbly out of his reach, still chirping in a
+piteous tone, as if it could have told a lamentable story, had
+it only been gifted with human language. And when he attempted
+to drive it away, the bird flew no farther than the bough of
+the next tree, and again came fluttering about his head, with
+its doleful chirp, as soon as he showed a purpose of going
+forward.
+
+"Have you anything to tell me, little bird?" asked Ulysses.
+
+And he was ready to listen attentively to whatever the bird
+might communicate; for, at the siege of Troy, and elsewhere, he
+had known such odd things to happen, that he would not have
+considered it much out of the common run had this little
+feathered creature talked as plainly as himself.
+
+"Peep!" said the bird, "peep, peep, pe--weep!" And nothing else
+would it say, but only, "Peep, peep, pe--weep!" in a melancholy
+cadence, and over and over and over again. As often as Ulysses
+moved forward, however, the bird showed the greatest alarm, and
+did its best to drive him back, with the anxious flutter of its
+purple wings. Its unaccountable behavior made him conclude, at
+last, that the bird knew of some danger that awaited him, and
+which must needs be very terrible, beyond all question, since
+it moved even a little fowl to feel compassion for a human
+being. So he resolved, for the present, to return to the
+vessel, and tell his companions what he had seen.
+
+This appeared to satisfy the bird. As soon as Ulysses turned
+back, it ran up the trunk of a tree, and began to pick insects
+out of the bark with its long, sharp bill; for it was a kind of
+woodpecker, you must know, and had to get its living in the
+same manner as other birds of that species. But every little
+while, as it pecked at the bark of the tree, the purple bird
+bethought itself of some secret sorrow, and repeated its
+plaintive note of "Peep, peep, pe--weep!"
+
+On his way to the shore, Ulysses had the good luck to kill a
+large stag by thrusting his spear into his back. Taking it on
+his shoulders (for he was a remarkably strong man), he lugged
+it along with him, and flung it down before his hungry
+companions. I have already hinted to you what gormandizers some
+of the comrades of King Ulysses were. From what is related of
+them, I reckon that their favorite diet was pork, and that they
+had lived upon it until a good part of their physical substance
+was swine's flesh, and their tempers and dispositions were very
+much akin to the hog. A dish of venison, however, was no
+unacceptable meal to them, especially after feeding so long on
+oysters and clams. So, beholding the dead stag, they felt of
+its ribs, in a knowing way, and lost no time in kindling a fire
+of driftwood, to cook it. The rest of the day was spent in
+feasting; and if these enormous eaters got up from table at
+sunset, it was only because they could not scrape another
+morsel off the poor animal's bones.
+
+The next morning, their appetites were as sharp as ever. They
+looked at Ulysses, as if they expected him to clamber up the
+cliff again, and come back with another fat deer upon his
+shoulders. Instead of setting out, however, he summoned the
+whole crew together, and told them it was in vain to hope that
+he could kill a stag every day for their dinner, and therefore
+it was advisable to think of some other mode of satisfying
+their hunger.
+
+"Now," said he, "when I was on the cliff, yesterday, I
+discovered that this island is inhabited. At a considerable
+distance from the shore stood a marble palace, which appeared
+to be very spacious, and had a great deal of smoke curling out
+of one of its chimneys."
+
+"Aha!" muttered some of his companions, smacking their lips.
+"That smoke must have come from the kitchen fire. There was a
+good dinner on the spit; and no doubt there will be as good a
+one to-day."
+
+"But," continued the wise Ulysses, "you must remember, my good
+friends, our misadventure in the cavern of one-eyed Polyphemus,
+the Cyclops! Instead of his ordinary milk diet, did he not eat
+up two of our comrades for his supper, and a couple more for
+breakfast, and two at his supper again? Methinks I see him yet,
+the hideous monster, scanning us with that great red eye, in
+the middle of his forehead, to single out the fattest. And
+then, again, only a few days ago, did we not fall into the
+hands of the king of the Laestrygons, and those other horrible
+giants, his subjects, who devoured a great many more of us than
+are now left? To tell you the truth, if we go to yonder palace,
+there can be no question that we shall make our appearance at
+the dinner table; but whether seated as guests, or served up as
+food, is a point to be seriously considered."
+
+"Either way," murmured some of the hungriest of the crew; "it
+will be better than starvation; particularly if one could be
+sure of being well fattened beforehand, and daintily cooked
+afterwards."
+
+"That is a matter of taste," said King Ulysses, "and, for my
+own part, neither the most careful fattening nor the daintiest
+of cookery would reconcile me to being dished at last. My
+proposal is, therefore, that we divide ourselves into two equal
+parties, and ascertain, by drawing lots, which of the two shall
+go to the palace, and beg for food and assistance. If these can
+be obtained, all is well. If not, and if the inhabitants prove
+as inhospitable as Polyphemus, or the Laestrygons, then there
+will but half of us perish, and the remainder may set sail and
+escape."
+
+As nobody objected to this scheme, Ulysses proceeded to count
+the whole band, and found that there were forty-six men,
+including himself. He then numbered off twenty-two of them, and
+put Eurylochus (who was one of his chief officers, and second
+only to himself in sagacity) at their head. Ulysses took
+command of the remaining twenty-two men, in person. Then,
+taking off his helmet, he put two shells into it, on one of
+which was written, "Go," and on the other "Stay." Another
+person now held the helmet, while Ulysses and Eurylochus drew
+out each a shell; and the word "Go" was found written on that
+which Eurylochus had drawn. In this manner, it was decided that
+Ulysses and his twenty-two men were to remain at the seaside
+until the other party should have found out what sort of
+treatment they might expect at the mysterious palace. As there
+was no help for it, Eurylochus immediately set forth at the
+head of his twenty-two followers, who went off in a very
+melancholy state of mind, leaving their friends in hardly
+better spirits than themselves.
+
+No sooner had they clambered up the cliff, than they discerned
+the tall marble towers of the palace, ascending, as white as
+snow, out of the lovely green shadow of the trees which
+surrounded it. A gush of smoke came from a chimney in the rear
+of the edifice. This vapor rose high in the air, and, meeting
+with a breeze, was wafted seaward, and made to pass over the
+heads of the hungry mariners. When people's appetites are keen,
+they have a very quick scent for anything savory in the wind.
+
+"That smoke comes from the kitchen!" cried one of them, turning
+up his nose as high as he could, and snuffing eagerly. "And, as
+sure as I'm a half-starved vagabond, I smell roast meat in it."
+
+"Pig, roast pig!" said another. "Ah, the dainty little porker.
+My mouth waters for him."
+
+"Let us make haste," cried the others, "or we shall be too late
+for the good cheer! "
+
+But scarcely had they made half a dozen steps from the edge of
+the cliff, when a bird came fluttering to meet them. It was the
+same pretty little bird, with the purple wings and body, the
+yellow legs, the golden collar round its neck, and the
+crown-like tuft upon its head, whose behavior had so much
+surprised Ulysses. It hovered about Eurylochus, and almost
+brushed his face with its wings.
+
+"Peep, peep, pe--weep!" chirped the bird.
+
+So plaintively intelligent was the sound, that it seemed as if
+the little creature were going to break its heart with some
+mighty secret that it had to tell, and only this one poor note
+to tell it with.
+
+"My pretty bird," said Eurylochus--for he was a wary person,
+and let no token of harm escape his notice--"my pretty bird,
+who sent you hither? And what is the message which you bring?"
+
+"Peep, peep, pe--weep! " replied the bird, very sorrowfully.
+
+Then it flew towards the edge of the cliff, and looked around
+at them, as if exceedingly anxious that they should return
+whence they came. Eurylochus and a few of the others were
+inclined to turn back. They could not help suspecting that the
+purple bird must be aware of something mischievous that would
+befall them at the palace, and the knowledge of which affected
+its airy spirit with a human sympathy and sorrow. But the rest
+of the voyagers, snuffing up the smoke from the palace kitchen,
+ridiculed the idea of returning to the vessel. One of them
+(more brutal than his fellows, and the most notorious
+gormandizer in the crew) said such a cruel and wicked thing,
+that I wonder the mere thought did not turn him into a wild
+beast, in shape, as he already was in his nature.
+
+"This troublesome and impertinent little fowl," said he, "would
+make a delicate titbit to begin dinner with. Just one plump
+morsel, melting away between the teeth. If he comes within my
+reach, I'll catch him, and give him to the palace cook to be
+roasted on a skewer."
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth, before the purple bird
+flew away, crying, "Peep, peep, pe--weep," more dolorously than
+ever.
+
+"That bird," remarked Eurylochus, "knows more than we do about
+what awaits us at the palace."
+
+"Come on, then," cried his comrades, "and we'll soon know as
+much as he does."
+
+The party, accordingly, went onward through the green and
+pleasant wood. Every little while they caught new glimpses of
+the marble palace, which looked more and more beautiful the
+nearer they approached it. They soon entered a broad pathway,
+which seemed to be very neatly kept, and which went winding
+along, with streaks of sunshine falling across it and specks of
+light quivering among the deepest shadows that fell from the
+lofty trees. It was bordered, too, with a great many
+sweet-smelling flowers, such as the mariners had never seen
+before. So rich and beautiful they were, that, if the shrubs
+grew wild here, and were native in the soil, then this island
+was surely the flower garden of the whole earth; or, if
+transplanted from some other clime, it must have been from the
+Happy Islands that lay towards the golden sunset.
+
+"There has been a great deal of pains foolishly wasted on these
+flowers," observed one of the company; and I tell you what he
+said, that you may keep in mind what gormandizers they were.
+"For my part, if I were the owner of the palace, I would bid my
+gardener cultivate nothing but savory pot herbs to make a
+stuffing for roast meat, or to flavor a stew with."
+
+" Well said!" cried the others. "But I'll warrant you there's a
+kitchen garden in the rear of the palace."
+
+At one place they came to a crystal spring, and paused to drink
+at it for want of liquor which they liked better. Looking into
+its bosom, they beheld their own faces dimly reflected, but so
+extravagantly distorted by the gush and motion of the water,
+that each one of them appeared to be laughing at himself and
+all his companions. So ridiculous were these images of
+themselves, indeed, that they did really laugh aloud, and could
+hardly be grave again as soon as they wished. And after they
+had drank, they grew still merrier than before.
+
+"It has a twang of the wine cask in it," said one, smacking his
+lips.
+
+"Make haste!" cried his fellows: "we'll find the wine cask
+itself at the palace, and that will be better than a hundred
+crystal fountains."
+
+Then they quickened their pace, and capered for joy at the
+thought of the savory banquet at which they hoped to be guests.
+But Eurylochus told them that he felt as if he were walking in
+a dream.
+
+"If I am really awake," continued he, "then, in my opinion, we
+are on the point of meeting with some stranger adventure than
+any that befell us in the cave of Polyphemus, or among the
+gigantic man-eating Laestrygons, or in the windy palace of King
+Aeolus, which stands on a brazen-walled island. This kind of
+dreamy feeling always comes over me before any wonderful
+occurrence. If you take my advice, you will turn back."
+
+"No, no," answered his comrades, snuffing the air, in which the
+scent from the palace kitchen was now very perceptible. "We
+would not turn back, though we were certain that the king of
+the Laestrygons, as big as a mountain, would sit at the head of
+the table, and huge Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops, at its
+foot."
+
+At length they came within full sight of the palace, which
+proved to be very large and lofty, with a great number of airy
+pinnacles upon its roof. Though it was midday, and the sun
+shone brightly over the marble front, yet its snowy whiteness,
+and its fantastic style of architecture, made it look unreal,
+like the frost work on a window pane, or like the shapes of
+castles which one sees among the clouds by moonlight. But, just
+then, a puff of wind brought down the smoke of the kitchen
+chimney among them, and caused each man to smell the odor of
+the dish that he liked best; and, after scenting it, they
+thought everything else moonshine, and nothing real save this
+palace, and save the banquet that was evidently ready to be
+served up in it.
+
+So they hastened their steps towards the portal, but had not
+got half way across the wide lawn, when a pack of lions,
+tigers, and wolves came bounding to meet them. The terrified
+mariners started back, expecting no better fate than to be torn
+to pieces and devoured. To their surprise and joy, however,
+these wild beasts merely capered around them, wagging their
+tails, offering their heads to be stroked and patted, and
+behaving just like so many well-bred house dogs, when they wish
+to express their delight at meeting their master, or their
+master's friends. The biggest lion licked the feet of
+Eurylochus; and every other lion, and every wolf and tiger,
+singled out one of his two and twenty followers, whom the beast
+fondled as if he loved him better than a beef bone.
+
+But, for all that, Eurylochus imagined that he saw something
+fierce and savage in their eyes; nor would he have been
+surprised, at any moment, to feel the big lion's terrible
+claws, or to see each of the tigers make a deadly spring,
+or each wolf leap at the throat of the man whom he had fondled.
+Their mildness seemed unreal, and a mere freak; but their
+savage nature was as true as their teeth and claws.
+
+Nevertheless, the men went safely across the lawn with the wild
+beasts frisking about them, and doing no manner of harm;
+although, as they mounted the steps of the palace, you might
+possibly have heard a low growl, particularly from the wolves;
+as if they thought it a pity, after all, to let the strangers
+pass without so much as tasting what they were made of.
+
+Eurylochus and his followers now passed under a lofty portal,
+and looked through the open doorway into the interior of the
+palace. The first thing that they saw was a spacious hall, and
+a fountain in the middle of it, gushing up towards the ceiling
+out of a marble basin, and falling back into it with a
+continual plash. The water of this fountain, as it spouted
+upward, was constantly taking new shapes, not very distinctly,
+but plainly enough for a nimble fancy to recognize what they
+were. Now it was the shape of a man in a long robe, the fleecy
+whiteness of which was made out of the fountain's spray; now it
+was a lion, or a tiger, or a wolf, or an ass, or, as often as
+anything else, a hog, wallowing in the marble basin as if it
+were his sty. It was either magic or some very curious
+machinery that caused the gushing waterspout to assume all
+these forms. But, before the strangers had time to look closely
+at this wonderful sight, their attention was drawn off by a
+very sweet and agreeable sound. A woman's voice was singing
+melodiously in another room of the palace, and with her voice
+was mingled the noise of a loom, at which she was probably
+seated, weaving a rich texture of cloth, and intertwining the
+high and low sweetness of her voice into a rich tissue of
+harmony.
+
+By and by, the song came to an end; and then, all at once,
+there were several feminine voices, talking airily and
+cheerfully, with now and then a merry burst of laughter, such
+as you may always hear when three or four young women sit at
+work together.
+
+"What a sweet song that was!" exclaimed one of the voyagers.
+
+"Too sweet, indeed," answered Eurylochus, shaking his head.
+"Yet it was not so sweet as the song of the Sirens, those
+bird-like damsels who wanted to tempt us on the rocks, so that
+our vessel might be wrecked, and our bones left whitening along
+the shore."
+
+"But just listen to the pleasant voices of those maidens, and
+that buzz of the loom, as the shuttle passes to and fro," said
+another comrade. "What a domestic, household, home-like sound
+it is! Ah, before that weary siege of Troy, I used to hear the
+buzzing loom and the women's voices under my own roof. Shall I
+never hear them again? nor taste those nice little savory
+dishes which my dearest wife knew how to serve up?"
+
+"Tush! we shall fare better here," said another. "But how
+innocently those women are babbling together, without guessing
+that we overhear them! And mark that richest voice of all, so
+pleasant and so familiar, but which yet seems to have the
+authority of a mistress among them. Let us show ourselves at
+once. What harm can the lady of the palace and her maidens do
+to mariners and warriors like us?"
+
+"Remember," said Eurylochus, "that it was a young maiden who
+beguiled three of our friends into the palace of the king of
+the Laestrygons, who ate up one of them in the twinkling of an
+eye."
+
+No warning or persuasion, however, had any effect on his
+companions. They went up to a pair of folding doors at the
+farther end of the hall, and throwing them wide open, passed
+into the next room. Eurylochus, meanwhile, had stepped behind a
+pillar. In the short moment while the folding doors opened and
+closed again, he caught a glimpse of a very beautiful woman
+rising from the loom, and coming to meet the poor
+weather-beaten wanderers, with a hospitable smile, and her hand
+stretched out in welcome. There were four other young women,
+who joined their hands and danced merrily forward, making
+gestures of obeisance to the strangers. They were only less
+beautiful than the lady who seemed to be their mistress. Yet
+Eurylochus fancied that one of them had sea-green hair, and
+that the close-fitting bodice of a second looked like the bark
+of a tree, and that both the others had something odd in their
+aspect, although he could not quite determine what it was, in
+the little while that he had to examine them.
+
+The folding doors swung quickly back, and left him standing
+behind the pillar, in the solitude of the outer hall. There
+Eurylochus waited until he was quite weary, and listened
+eagerly to every sound, but without hearing anything that could
+help him to guess what had become of his friends. Footsteps, it
+is true, seemed to be passing and repassing, in other parts of
+the palace. Then there was a clatter of silver dishes, or
+golden ones, which made him imagine a rich feast in a splendid
+banqueting hall. But by and by he heard a tremendous grunting
+and squealing, and then a sudden scampering, like that of
+small, hard hoofs over a marble floor, while the voices of the
+mistress and her four handmaidens were screaming all together,
+in tones of anger and derision. Eurylochus could not conceive
+what had happened, unless a drove of swine had broken into the
+palace, attracted by the smell of the feast. Chancing to cast
+his eyes at the fountain, he saw that it did not shift its
+shape, as formerly, nor looked either like a long-robed man, or
+a lion, a tiger, a wolf, or an ass. It looked like nothing but
+a hog, which lay wallowing in the marble basin, and filled it
+from brim to brim.
+
+But we must leave the prudent Eurylochus waiting in the outer
+hall, and follow his friends into the inner secrecy of the
+palace. As soon as the beautiful woman saw them, she arose from
+the loom, as I have told you, and came forward, smiling, and
+stretching out her hand. She took the hand of the foremost
+among them, and bade him and the whole party welcome.
+
+"You have been long expected, my good friends," said she. "I
+and my maidens are well acquainted with you, although you do
+not appear to recognize us. Look at this piece of tapestry, and
+judge if your faces must not have been familiar to us."
+
+So the voyagers examined the web of cloth which the beautiful
+woman had been weaving in her loom; and, to their vast
+astonishment, they saw their own figures perfectly represented
+in different colored threads. It was a life-like picture of
+their recent adventures, showing them in the cave of
+Polyphemus, and how they had put out his one great moony eye;
+while in another part of the tapestry they were untying the
+leathern bags, puffed out with contrary winds; and farther on,
+they beheld themselves scampering away from the gigantic king
+of the Laestrygons, who had caught one of them by the leg.
+Lastly, there they were, sitting on the desolate shore of this
+very island, hungry and downcast, and looking ruefully at the
+bare bones of the stag which they devoured yesterday. This was
+as far as the work had yet proceeded; but when the beautiful
+woman should again sit down at her loom, she would probably
+make a picture of what had since happened to the strangers, and
+of what was now going to happen.
+
+"You see," she said, "that I know all about your troubles; and
+you cannot doubt that I desire to make you happy for as long a
+time as you may remain with me. For this purpose, my honored
+guests, I have ordered a banquet to be prepared. Fish, fowl,
+and flesh, roasted, and in luscious stews, and seasoned, I
+trust, to all your tastes, are ready to be served up. If your
+appetites tell you it is dinner time, then come with me to the
+festal saloon."
+
+At this kind invitation, the hungry mariners were quite
+overjoyed; and one of them, taking upon himself to be
+spokesman, assured their hospitable hostess that any hour of
+the day was dinner time with them, whenever they could get
+flesh to put in the pot, and fire to boil it with. So the
+beautiful woman led the way; and the four maidens (one of them
+had sea-green hair, another a bodice of oak bark, a third
+sprinkled a shower of water drops from her fingers' ends, and
+the fourth had some other oddity, which I have forgotten), all
+these followed behind, and hurried the guests along, until they
+entered a magnificent saloon. It was built in a perfect oval,
+and lighted from a crystal dome above. Around the walls were
+ranged two and twenty thrones, overhung by canopies of crimson
+and gold, and provided with the softest of cushions, which were
+tasselled and fringed with gold cord. Each of the strangers was
+invited to sit down; and there they were, two and twenty storm-
+beaten mariners, in worn and tattered garb, sitting on two and
+twenty cushioned and canopied thrones, so rich and gorgeous
+that the proudest monarch had nothing more splendid in his
+stateliest hall.
+
+Then you might have seen the guests nodding, winking with one
+eye, and leaning from one throne to another, to communicate
+their satisfaction in hoarse whispers.
+
+"Our good hostess has made kings of us all," said one. "Ha! do
+you smell the feast? I'll engage it will be fit to set before
+two and twenty kings."
+
+"I hope," said another, "it will be, mainly, good substantial
+joints, sirloins, spareribs, and hinder quarters, without too
+many kickshaws. If I thought the good lady would not take it
+amiss, I should call for a fat slice of fried bacon to begin
+with."
+
+Ah, the gluttons and gormandizers! You see how it was with
+them. In the loftiest seats of dignity, on royal thrones, they
+could think of nothing but their greedy appetite, which was the
+portion of their nature that they shared with wolves and swine;
+so that they resembled those vilest of animals far more than
+they did kings--if, indeed, kings were what they ought to be.
+
+But the beautiful woman now clapped her hands; and immediately
+there entered a train of two and twenty serving man, bringing
+dishes of the richest food, all hot from the kitchen fire, and
+sending up such a steam that it hung like a cloud below the
+crystal dome of the saloon. An equal number of attendants
+brought great flagons of wine, of various kinds, some of which
+sparkled as it was poured out, and went bubbling down the
+throat; while, of other sorts, the purple liquor was so clear
+that you could see the wrought figures at the bottom of the
+goblet. While the servants supplied the two and twenty guests
+with food and drink, the hostess and her four maidens went from
+one throne to another, exhorting them to eat their fill, and to
+quaff wine abundantly, and thus to recompense them- selves, at
+this one banquet, for the many days when they had gone without
+a dinner. But whenever the mariners were not looking at them
+(which was pretty often, as they looked chiefly into the basins
+and platters), the beautiful woman and her damsels turned
+aside, and laughed. Even the servants, as they knelt down to
+present the dishes, might be seen to grin and sneer, while the
+guests were helping themselves to the offered dainties.
+
+And, once in a while, the strangers seemed to taste something
+that they did not like.
+
+"Here is an odd kind of spice in this dish," said one. "I can't
+say it quite suits my palate. Down it goes, however."
+
+"Send a good draught of wine down your throat," said his
+comrade on the next throne. "That is the stuff to make this
+sort of cookery relish well. Though I must needs say, the wine
+has a queer taste too. But the more I drink of it, the better I
+like the flavor."
+
+Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat
+at dinner a prodigiously long while; and it would really have
+made you ashamed to see how they swilled down the liquor and
+gobbled up the food. They sat on golden thrones, to be sure;
+but they behaved like pigs in a sty; and, if they had had their
+wits about them, they might have guessed that this was the
+opinion of their beautiful hostess and her maidens. It brings a
+blush into my face to reckon up, in my own mind, what mountains
+of meat and pudding, and what gallons of wine, these two and
+twenty guzzlers and gormandizers ate and drank. They forgot all
+about their homes, and their wives and children, and all about
+Ulysses, and everything else, except this banquet, at which
+they wanted to keep feasting forever. But at length they began
+to give over, from mere incapacity to hold any more.
+
+"That last bit of fat is too much for me," said one.
+
+"And I have not room for another morsel," said his next
+neighbor, heaving a sigh. "What a pity! My appetite is as sharp
+as ever."
+
+In short, they all left off eating, and leaned back on their
+thrones, with such a stupid and helpless aspect as made them
+ridiculous to behold. When their hostess saw this, she laughed
+aloud; so did her four damsels; so did the two and twenty
+serving men that bore the dishes, and their two and twenty
+fellows that poured out the wine. And the louder they all
+laughed, the more stupid and helpless did the two and twenty
+gormandizers look. Then the beautiful woman took her stand in
+the middle of the saloon, and stretching out a slender rod (it
+had been all the while in her hand, although they never noticed
+it till this moment), she turned it from one guest to another,
+until each had felt it pointed at himself. Beautiful as her
+face was, and though there was a smile on it, it looked just as
+wicked and mischievous as the ugliest serpent that ever was
+seen; and fat-witted as the voyagers had made themselves, they
+began to suspect that they had fallen into the power of an
+evil-minded enchantress.
+
+"Wretches," cried she, "you have abused a lady's hospitality;
+and in this princely saloon your behavior has been suited to a
+hog-pen. You are already swine in everything but the human
+form, which you disgrace, and which I myself should be ashamed
+to keep a moment longer, were you to share it with me. But it
+will require only the slightest exercise of magic to make the
+exterior conform to the hoggish disposition. Assume your proper
+shapes, gormandizers, and begone to the sty!"
+
+Uttering these last words, she waved her wand; and stamping her
+foot imperiously, each of the guests was struck aghast at
+beholding, instead of his comrades in human shape, one and
+twenty hogs sitting on the same number of golden thrones. Each
+man (as he still supposed himself to be) essayed to give a cry
+of surprise, but found that he could merely grunt, and that, in
+a word, he was just such another beast as his companions. It
+looked so intolerably absurd to see hogs on cushioned thrones,
+that they made haste to wallow down upon all fours, like other
+swine. They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith
+emitted the most awful grunting and squealing that ever came
+out of swinish throats. They would have wrung their hands in
+despair, but, attempting to do so, grew all the more desperate
+for seeing themselves squatted on their hams, and pawing the
+air with their fore trotters. Dear me! what pendulous ears they
+had! what little red eyes, half buried in fat! and what long
+snouts, instead of Grecian noses!
+
+But brutes as they certainly were, they yet had enough of human
+nature in them to be shocked at their own hideousness; and
+still intending to groan, they uttered a viler grunt and squeal
+than before. So harsh and ear-piercing it was, that you would
+have fancied a butcher was sticking his knife into each of
+their throats, or, at the very least, that somebody was pulling
+every hog by his funny little twist of a tail.
+
+"Begone to your sty!" cried the enchantress, giving them some
+smart strokes with her wand; and then she turned to the serving
+men--"Drive out these swine, and throw down some acorns for
+them to eat."
+
+The door of the saloon being flung open, the drove of hogs ran
+in all directions save the right one, in accordance with their
+hoggish perversity, but were finally driven into the back yard
+of the palace. It was a sight to bring tears into one's eyes
+(and I hope none of you will be cruel enough to laugh at it),
+to see the poor creatures go snuffing along, picking up here a
+cabbage leaf and there a turnip top, and rooting their noses in
+the earth for whatever they could find. In their sty, moreover,
+they behaved more piggishly than the pigs that had been born
+so; for they bit and snorted at one another, put their feet in
+the trough, and gobbled up their victuals in a ridiculous
+hurry; and, when there was nothing more to be had, they made a
+great pile of themselves among some unclean straw, and fell
+fast asleep. If they had any human reason left, it was just
+enough to keep them wondering when they should be slaughtered,
+and what quality of bacon they should make.
+
+Meantime, as I told you before, Eurylochus had waited, and
+waited, and waited, in the entrance hall of the palace, without
+being able to comprehend what had befallen his friends. At
+last, when the swinish uproar resounded through the palace, and
+when he saw the image of a hog in the marble basin, he thought
+it best to hasten back to the vessel, and inform the wise
+Ulysses of these marvelous occurrences. So he ran as fast as he
+could down the steps, and never stopped to draw breath till he
+reached the shore.
+
+"Why do you come alone?" asked King Ulysses, as soon as he saw
+him. "Where are your two and twenty comrades?"
+
+At these questions, Eurylochus burst into tears.
+
+"Alas!" he cried, "I greatly fear that we shall never see one
+of their faces again."
+
+Then he told Ulysses all that had happened, as far as he knew
+it, and added that he suspected the beautiful woman to be a
+vile enchantress, and the marble palace, magnificent as it
+looked, to be only a dismal cavern in reality. As for his
+companions, he could not imagine what had become of them,
+unless they had been given to the swine to be devoured alive.
+At this intelligence, all the voyagers were greatly affrighted.
+But Ulysses lost no time in girding on his sword, and hanging
+his bow and quiver over his shoulders, and. taking a spear in
+his right hand. When his followers saw their wise leader making
+these preparations, they inquired whither he was going, and
+earnestly besought him not to leave them.
+
+"You are our king," cried they; "and what is more, you are the
+wisest man in the whole world, and nothing but your wisdom and
+courage can get us out of this danger. If you desert us, and go
+to the enchanted palace, you will suffer the same fate as our
+poor companions, and not a soul of us will ever see our dear
+Ithaca again."
+
+"As I am your king," answered Ulysses, "and wiser than any of
+you, it is therefore the more my duty to see what has befallen
+our comrades, and whether anything can yet be done to rescue
+them. Wait for me here until tomorrow. If I do not then return,
+you must hoist sail, and endeavor to find your way to our
+native land. For my part, I am answerable for the fate of these
+poor mariners, who have stood by my side in battle, and been so
+often drenched to the skin, along with me, by the same
+tempestuous surges. I will either bring them back with me, or
+perish."
+
+Had his followers dared, they would have detained him by force.
+But King Ulysses frowned sternly on them, and shook his spear,
+and bade them stop him at their peril. Seeing him so
+determined, they let him go, and sat down on the sand, as
+disconsolate a set of people as could be, waiting and praying
+for his return.
+
+It happened to Ulysses, just as before, that, when he had gone
+a few steps from the edge of the cliff, the purple bird came
+fluttering towards him, crying, "Peep, peep, pe--weep!" and
+using all the art it could to persuade him to go no farther.
+
+"What mean you, little bird?" cried Ulysses. "You are arrayed
+like a king in purple and gold, and wear a golden crown upon
+your head. Is it because I too am a king, that you desire so
+earnestly to speak with me? If you can talk in human language,
+say what you would have me do."
+
+"Peep!" answered the purple bird, very dolorously. "Peep, peep,
+pe--we--e!"
+
+Certainly there lay some heavy anguish at the little bird's
+heart; and it was a sorrowful predicament that he could not, at
+least, have the consolation of telling what it was. But Ulysses
+had no time to waste in trying to get at the mystery. He
+therefore quickened his pace, and had gone a good way along the
+pleasant wood path, when there met him a young man of very
+brisk and intelligent aspect, and clad in a rather singular
+garb. He wore a short cloak and a sort of cap that seemed to be
+furnished with a pair of wings; and from the lightness of his
+step, you would have supposed that there might likewise be
+wings on his feet. To enable him to walk still better (for he
+was always on one journey or another) he carried a winged
+staff, around which two serpents were wriggling and twisting.
+In short, I have said enough to make you guess that it was
+Quicksilver; and Ulysses (who knew him of old, and had learned
+a great deal of his wisdom from him) recognized him in a
+moment.
+
+"Whither are you going in such a hurry, wise Ulysses?" asked
+Quicksilver. "Do you not know that this island is enchanted?
+The wicked enchantress (whose name is Circe, the sister of King
+Aetes) dwells in the marble palace which you see yonder among
+the trees. By her magic arts she changes every human being into
+the brute, beast, or fowl whom he happens most to resemble."
+
+"That little bird, which met me at the edge of the cliff,"
+exclaimed Ulysses; "was he a human being once?"
+
+"Yes," answered Quicksilver. "He was once a king, named Picus,
+and a pretty good sort of a king, too, only rather too proud of
+his purple robe, and his crown, and the golden chain about his
+neck; so he was forced to take the shape of a gaudy-feathered
+bird. The lions, and wolves, and tigers, who will come running
+to meet you, in front of the palace, were formerly fierce and
+cruel  men, resembling in their disposition the wild beasts
+whose forms they now rightfully wear."
+
+"And my poor companions," said Ulysses. "Have they undergone a
+similar change, through the arts of this wicked Circe?"
+
+"You well know what gormandizers they were," replied
+Quicksilver; and rogue that he was, he could not help laughing
+at the joke. "So you will not be surprised to hear that they
+have all taken the shapes of swine! If Circe had never done
+anything worse, I really should not think her so very much to
+blame."
+
+"But can I do nothing to help them?" inquired Ulysses.
+
+"It will require all your wisdom," said Quicksilver, "and a
+little of my own into the bargain, to keep your royal and
+sagacious self from being transformed into a fox. But do as I
+bid you; and the matter may end better than it has begun."
+
+While he was speaking, Quicksilver seemed to be in search of
+something; he went stooping along the ground, and soon laid his
+hand on a little plant with a snow-white flower, which he
+plucked and smelt of. Ulysses had been looking at that very
+spot only just before; and it appeared to him that the plant
+had burst into full flower the instant when Quicksilver touched
+it with his fingers.
+
+"Take this flower, King Ulysses," said he. "Guard it as you do
+your eyesight; for I can assure you it is exceedingly rare and
+precious, and you might seek the whole earth over without ever
+finding another like it. Keep it in your hand, and smell of it
+frequently after you enter the palace, and while you are
+talking with the enchantress. Especially when she offers you
+food, or a draught of wine out of her goblet, be careful to
+fill your nostrils with the flower's fragrance. Follow these
+directions, and you may defy her magic arts to change you into
+a fox."
+
+Quicksilver then gave him some further advice how to behave,
+and bidding him be bold and prudent, again assured him that,
+powerful as Circe was, he would have a fair prospect of coming
+safely out of her enchanted palace. After listening
+attentively, Ulysses thanked his good friend, and resumed his
+way. But he had taken only a few steps, when, recollecting some
+other questions which he wished to ask, he turned round again,
+and beheld nobody on the spot where Quicksilver had stood; for
+that winged cap of his, and those winged shoes, with the help
+of the winged staff, had carried him quickly out of sight.
+
+When Ulysses reached the lawn, in front of the palace, the
+lions and other savage animals came bounding to meet him, and
+would have fawned upon him and licked his feet. But the wise
+king struck at them with his long spear, and sternly bade them
+begone out of his path; for he knew that they had once been
+bloodthirsty men, and would now tear him limb from limb,
+instead of fawning upon him, could they do the mischief that
+was in their hearts. The wild beasts yelped and glared at him,
+and stood at a distance, while he ascended the palace steps.
+
+On entering the hall, Ulysses saw the magic fountain in the
+center of it. The up-gushing water had now again taken the
+shape of a man in a long, white, fleecy robe, who appeared to
+be making gestures of welcome. The king likewise heard the
+noise of the shuttle in the loom and the sweet melody of the
+beautiful woman's song, and then the pleasant voices of herself
+and the four maidens talking together, with peals of merry
+laughter intermixed. But Ulysses did not waste much time in
+listening to the laughter or the song. He leaned his spear
+against one of the pillars of the hall, and then, after
+loosening his sword in the scabbard, stepped boldly forward,
+and threw the folding doors wide open. The moment she beheld
+his stately figure standing in the doorway, the beautiful woman
+rose from the loom, and ran to meet him with a glad smile
+throwing its sunshine over her face, and both her hands
+extended.
+
+"Welcome, brave stranger!" cried she. "We were expecting you."
+
+And the nymph with the sea-green hair made a courtesy down to
+the ground, and likewise bade him welcome; so did her sister
+with the bodice of oaken bark, and she that sprinkled dew-drops
+from her fingers' ends, and the fourth one with some oddity
+which I cannot remember. And Circe, as the beautiful
+enchantress was called (who had deluded so many persons that
+she did not doubt of being able to delude Ulysses, not
+imagining how wise he was), again addressed him:
+
+"Your companions," said she, "have already been received into
+my palace, and have enjoyed the hospitable treatment to which
+the propriety of their behavior so well entitles them. If such
+be your pleasure, you shall first take some refreshment, and
+then join them in the elegant apartment which they now occupy.
+See, I and my maidens have been weaving their figures into this
+piece of tapestry."
+
+She pointed to the web of beautifully-woven cloth in the loom.
+Circe and the four nymphs must have been very diligently at
+work since the arrival of the mariners; for a great many yards
+of tapestry had now been wrought, in addition to what I before
+described. In this new part, Ulysses saw his two and twenty
+friends represented as sitting on cushions and canopied
+thrones, greedily devouring dainties, and quaffing deep
+draughts of wine. The work had not yet gone any further. O, no,
+indeed. The enchantress was far too cunning to let Ulysses see
+the mischief which her magic arts had since brought upon the
+gormandizers.
+
+"As for yourself, valiant sir," said Circe, "judging by the
+dignity of your aspect, I take you to be nothing less than a
+king. Deign to follow me, and you shall be treated as befits
+your rank."
+
+So Ulysses followed her into the oval saloon, where his two and
+twenty comrades had devoured the banquet, which ended so
+disastrously for themselves. But, all this while, he had held
+the snow-white flower in his hand, and had constantly smelt of
+it while Circe was speaking; and as he crossed the threshold of
+the saloon, he took good care to inhale several long and deep
+snuffs of its fragrance. Instead of two and twenty thrones,
+which had before been ranged around the wall, there was now
+only a single throne, in the center of the apartment. But this
+was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an
+emperor reposed himself upon, all made of chased gold, studded
+with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft
+heap of living roses, and overhung by a canopy of sunlight
+which Circe knew how to weave into drapery. The enchantress
+took Ulysses by the hand, and made him sit down upon this
+dazzling throne. Then, clapping her hands, she summoned the
+chief butler.
+
+"Bring hither," said she, "the goblet that is set apart for
+kings to drink out of. And fill it with the same delicious wine
+which my royal brother, King Aetes, praised so highly, when he
+last visited me with my fair daughter Medea. That good and
+amiable child! Were she now here, it would delight her to see
+me offering this wine to my honored guest."
+
+But Ulysses, while the butler was gone for the wine, held the
+snow-white flower to his nose.
+
+"Is it a wholesome wine?" he asked.
+
+At this the four maidens tittered; whereupon the enchantress
+looked round at them, with an aspect of severity.
+
+"It is the wholesomest juice that ever was squeezed out of the
+grape," said she; "for, instead of disguising a man, as other
+liquor is apt to do, it brings him to his true self, and shows
+him as he ought to be."
+
+The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned
+into swine, or making any kind of a beast of themselves; so he
+made haste to bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as
+bright as gold, and which kept sparkling upward, and throwing a
+sunny spray over the brim. But, delightfully as the wine
+looked, it was mingled with the most potent enchantments that
+Circe knew how to concoct. For every drop of the pure grape
+juice there were two drops of the pure mischief; and the danger
+of the thing was, that the mischief made it taste all the
+better. The mere smell of the bubbles, which effervesced at the
+brim, was enough to turn a man's beard into pig's bristles, or
+make a lion's claws grow out of his fingers, or a fox's brush
+behind him.
+
+"Drink, my noble guest," said Circe, smiling, as she presented
+him with the goblet. "You will find in this draught a solace
+for all your troubles."
+
+King Ulysses took the goblet with his right hand, while with
+his left he held the snow-white flower to his nostrils, and
+drew in so long a breath that his lungs were quite filled with
+its pure and simple fragrance. Then, drinking off all the wine,
+he looked the enchantress calmly in the face.
+
+"Wretch," cried Circe, giving him a smart stroke with her wand,
+"how dare you keep your human shape a moment longer! Take the
+form of the brute whom you most resemble. If a hog, go join
+your fellow-swine in the sty; if a lion, a wolf, a tiger, go
+howl with the wild beasts on the lawn; if a fox, go exercise
+your craft in stealing poultry. Thou hast quaffed off my wine,
+and canst be man no longer."
+
+But, such was the virtue of the snow-white flower, instead of
+wallowing down from his throne in swinish shape, or taking any
+other brutal form, Ulysses looked even more manly and king-like
+than before. He gave the magic goblet a toss, and sent it
+clashing over the marble floor to the farthest end of the
+saloon. Then, drawing his sword, he seized the enchantress by
+her beautiful ringlets, and made a gesture as if he meant to
+strike off her head at one blow.
+
+"Wicked Circe," cried he, in a terrible voice, "this sword
+shall put an end to thy enchant meets. Thou shalt die, vile
+wretch, and do no more mischief in the world, by tempting human
+beings into the vices which make beasts of them."
+
+The tone and countenance of Ulysses were so awful, and his
+sword gleamed so brightly, and seemed to have so intolerably
+keen an edge, that Circe was almost killed by the mere fright,
+without waiting for a blow. The chief butler scrambled out of
+the saloon, picking up the golden goblet as he went; and the
+enchantress and the four maidens fell on their knees, wringing
+their hands, and screaming for mercy.
+
+"Spare me!" cried Circe. "Spare me, royal and wise Ulysses. For
+now I know that thou art he of whom Quicksilver forewarned me,
+the most prudent of mortals, against whom no enchantments can
+prevail. Thou only couldst have conquered Circe. Spare me,
+wisest of men. I will show thee true hospitality, and even give
+myself to be thy slave, and this magnificent palace to be
+henceforth thy home."
+
+The four nymphs, meanwhile, were making a most piteous ado; and
+especially the ocean nymph, with the sea-green hair, wept a
+great deal of salt water, and the fountain nymph, besides
+scattering dewdrops from her fingers' ends, nearly melted away
+into tears. But Ulysses would not be pacified until Circe had
+taken a solemn oath to change back his companions, and as many
+others as he should direct, from their present forms of beast
+or bird into their former shapes of men.
+
+"On these conditions," said he, "I consent to spare your life.
+Otherwise you must die upon the spot."
+
+With a drawn sword hanging over her, the enchantress would
+readily have consented to do as much good as she had hitherto
+done mischief, however little she might like such employment.
+She therefore led Ulysses out of the back entrance of the
+palace, and showed him the swine in their sty. There were about
+fifty of these unclean beasts in the whole herd; and though the
+greater part were hogs by birth and education, there was
+wonderfully little difference to be seen betwixt them and their
+new brethren, who had so recently worn the human shape. To
+speak critically, indeed, the latter rather carried the thing
+to excess, and seemed to make it a point to wallow in the
+miriest part of the sty, and otherwise to outdo the original
+swine in their own natural vocation. When men once turn to
+brutes, the trifle of man's wit that remains in them adds
+tenfold to their brutality.
+
+The comrades of Ulysses, however, had not quite lost the
+remembrance of having formerly stood erect. When he approached
+the sty, two and twenty enormous swine separated themselves
+from the herd, and scampered towards him, with such a chorus of
+horrible squealing as made him clap both hands to his ears. And
+yet they did not seem to know what they wanted, nor whether
+they were merely hungry, or miserable from some other cause. It
+was curious, in the midst of their distress, to observe them
+thrusting their noses into the mire, in quest of something to
+eat. The nymph with the bodice of oaken bark (she was the
+hamadryad of an oak) threw a handful of acorns among them; and
+the two and twenty hogs scrambled and fought for the prize, as
+if they had tasted not so much as a noggin of sour milk for a
+twelvemonth.
+
+"These must certainly be my comrades," said Ulysses. "I
+recognize their dispositions. They are hardly worth the trouble
+of changing them into the human form again. Nevertheless, we
+will have it done, lest their bad example should corrupt the
+other hogs. Let them take their original shapes, therefore,
+Dame Circe, if your skill is equal to the task. It will require
+greater magic, I trow, than it did to make swine of them."
+
+So Circe waved her wand again, and repeated a few magic words,
+at the sound of which the two and twenty hogs pricked up their
+pendulous ears. It was a wonder to behold how their snouts grew
+shorter and shorter, and their mouths (which they seemed to be
+sorry for, because they could not gobble so expeditiously)
+smaller and smaller, and how one and another began to stand
+upon his hind legs, and scratch his nose with his fore
+trotters. At first the spectators hardly knew whether to call
+them hogs or men, but by and by came to the conclusion that
+they rather resembled the latter. Finally, there stood the
+twenty-two comrades of Ulysses, looking pretty much the same as
+when they left the vessel.
+
+You must not imagine, however, that the swinish quality had
+entirely gone out of them. When once it fastens itself into a
+person's character, it is very difficult getting rid of it.
+This was proved by the hamadryad, who, being exceedingly fond
+of mischief, threw another handful of acorns before the twenty-
+two newly-restored people; whereupon down they wallowed in a
+moment, and gobbled them up in a very shameful way. Then,
+recollecting themselves, they scrambled to their feet, and
+looked more than commonly foolish.
+
+"Thanks, noble Ulysses!" they cried. "From brute beasts you
+have restored us to the condition of men again."
+
+"Do not put yourselves to the trouble of thanking me," said the
+wise king. "I fear I have done but little for you."
+
+To say the truth, there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in
+their voices, and, for a long time afterwards, they spoke
+gruffly, and were apt to set up a squeal.
+
+"It must depend on your own future behavior," added Ulysses,
+"whether you do not find your way back to the sty."
+
+At this moment, the note of a bird sounded from the branch of a
+neighboring tree.
+
+"Peep, peep, pe--wee--e!"
+
+It was the purple bird, who, all this while, had been sitting
+over their heads, watching what was going forward, and hoping
+that Ulysses would remember how he had done his utmost to keep
+him and his followers out of harm's way. Ulysses ordered Circe
+instantly to make a king of this good little fowl, and leave
+him exactly as she found him. Hardly were the words spoken, and
+before the bird had time to utter another "pe--weep," King
+Picus leaped down from the bough of a tree, as majestic a
+sovereign as any in the world, dressed in a long purple robe
+and gorgeous yellow stockings, with a splendidly wrought collar
+about his neck, and a golden crown upon his head. He and King
+Ulysses exchanged with one another the courtesies which belong
+to their elevated rank. But from that time forth, King Picus
+was no longer proud of his crown and his trappings of royalty,
+nor of the fact of his being a king; he felt himself merely the
+upper servant of his people, and that it must be his life-long
+labor to make them better and happier.
+
+As for the lions, tigers, and wolves (though Circe would have
+restored them to their former shapes at his slightest word),
+Ulysses thought it advisable that they should remain as they
+now were, and thus give warning of their cruel dispositions,
+instead of going about under the guise of men, and pretending
+to human sympathies, while their hearts had the blood-
+thirstiness of wild beasts. So he let them howl as much as they
+liked, but never troubled his head about them. And, when
+everything was settled according to his pleasure, he sent to
+summon the remainder of his comrades, whom he had left at the
+sea-shore. These being arrived, with the prudent Eurylochus at
+their head, they all made themselves comfortable in Circe's
+enchanted palace, until quite rested and refreshed from the
+toils and hardships of their voyage.
+
+
+
+THE POMEGRANATE SEEDS.
+
+Mother Ceres was exceedingly fond of her daughter Proserpina,
+and seldom let her go alone into the fields. But, just at the
+time when my story begins, the good lady was very busy, because
+she had the care of the wheat, and the Indian corn, and the rye
+and barley and, in short, of the crops of every kind, all over
+the earth; and as the season had thus far been uncommonly
+backward, it was necessary to make the harvest ripen more
+speedily than usual. So she put on her turban, made of poppies
+(a kind of flower which she was always noted for wearing), and
+got into her car drawn by a pair of winged dragons, and was
+just ready to set off.
+
+"Dear mother," said Proserpina, "I shall be very lonely while
+you are away. May I not run down to the shore, and ask some of
+the sea nymphs to come up out of the waves and play with me?"
+
+"Yes, child," answered Mother Ceres. "The sea nymphs are good
+creatures, and will never lead you into any harm. But you must
+take care not to stray away from them, nor go wandering about
+the fields by yourself. Young girls, without their mothers to
+take care of them, are very apt to get into mischief."
+
+The child promised to be as prudent as if she were a grown-up
+woman; and, by the time the winged dragons had whirled the car
+out of sight, she was already on the shore, calling to the sea
+nymphs to come and play with her. They knew Proserpina's voice,
+and were not long in showing their glistening faces and
+sea-green hair above the water, at the bottom of which was
+their home. They brought along with them a great many beautiful
+shells; and sitting down on the moist sand, where the surf wave
+broke over them, they busied themselves in making a necklace,
+which they hung round Proserpina's neck. By way of showing her
+gratitude, the child besought them to go with her a little way
+into the fields, so that they might gather abundance of
+flowers, with which she would make each of her kind playmates a
+wreath.
+
+"O no, dear Proserpina," cried the sea nymphs; "we dare not go
+with you upon the dry land. We are apt to grow faint, unless at
+every breath we can snuff up the salt breeze of the ocean. And
+don't you see how careful we are to let the surf wave break
+over us every moment or two, so as to keep ourselves
+comfortably moist? If it were not for that, we should look like
+bunches of uprooted seaweed dried in the sun.
+
+"It is a great pity," said Proserpina. "But do you wait for me
+here, and I will run and gather my apron full of flowers, and
+be back again before the surf wave has broken ten times over
+you. I long to make you some wreaths that shall be as lovely as
+this necklace of many colored shells."
+
+"We will wait, then," answered the sea nymphs. "But while you
+are gone, we may as well lie down on a bank of soft sponge
+under the water. The air to-day is a little too dry for our
+comfort. But we will pop up our heads every few minutes to see
+if you are coming."
+
+The young Proserpina ran quickly to a spot where, only the day
+before, she had seen a great many flowers. These, however, were
+now a little past their bloom; and wishing to give her friends
+the freshest and loveliest blossoms, she strayed farther into
+the fields, and found some that made her scream with delight.
+Never had she met with such exquisite flowers before--violets
+so large and fragrant--roses with so rich and delicate a
+blush--such superb hyacinths and such aromatic pinks--and many
+others, some of which seemed to be of new shapes and colors.
+Two or three times, moreover, she could not help thinking that
+a tuft of most splendid flowers had suddenly sprouted out of
+the earth before her very eyes, as if on purpose to tempt her a
+few steps farther. Proserpina's apron was soon filled, and
+brimming over with delightful blossoms. She was on the point of
+turning back in order to rejoin the sea nymphs, and sit with
+them on the moist sands, all twining wreaths together. But, a
+little farther on, what should she behold? It was a large
+shrub, completely covered with the most magnificent flowers in
+the world.
+
+"The darlings!" cried Proserpina; and then she thought to
+herself, "I was looking at that spot only a moment ago. How
+strange it is that I did not see the flowers!"
+
+The nearer she approached the shrub, the more attractive it
+looked, until she came quite close to it; and then, although
+its beauty was richer than words can tell, she hardly knew
+whether to like it or not. It bore above a hundred flowers of
+the most brilliant hues, and each different from the others,
+but all having a kind of resemblance among themselves, which
+showed them to be sister blossoms. But there was a deep, glossy
+luster on the leaves of the shrub, and on the petals of the
+flowers, that made Proserpina doubt whether they might not be
+poisonous. To tell you the truth, foolish as it may seem, she
+was half inclined to turn round and run away.
+
+"What a silly child I am!" thought she, taking courage. "It is
+really the most beautiful shrub that ever sprang out of the
+earth. I will pull it up by the roots, and carry it home, and
+plant it in my mother's garden."
+
+Holding up her apron full of flowers with her left hand,
+Proserpina seized the large shrub with the other, and pulled,
+and pulled, but was hardly able to loosen the soil about its
+roots. What a deep-rooted plant it was! Again the girl pulled
+with all her might, and observed that the earth began to stir
+and crack to some distance around the stem. She gave another
+pull, but relaxed her hold, fancying that there was a rumbling
+sound right beneath her feet. Did the roots extend down into
+some enchanted cavern? Then laughing at herself for so childish
+a notion, she made another effort: up came the shrub, and
+Proserpina staggered back, holding the stem triumphantly in her
+hand, and gazing at the deep hole which its roots had left in
+the soil.
+
+Much to her astonishment, this hole kept spreading wider and
+wider, and growing deeper and deeper, until it really seemed to
+have no bottom; and all the while, there came a rumbling noise
+out of its depths, louder and louder, and nearer and nearer,
+and sounding like the tramp of horses' hoofs and the rattling
+of wheels. Too much frightened to run away, she stood straining
+her eyes into this wonderful cavity, and soon saw a team of
+four sable horses, snorting smoke out of their nostrils, and
+tearing their way out of the earth with a splendid golden
+chariot whirling at their heels. They leaped out of the
+bottomless hole, chariot and all; and there they were, tossing
+their black manes, flourishing their black tails, and
+curvetting with every one of their hoofs off the ground at
+once, close by the spot where Proserpina stood. In the chariot
+sat the figure of a man, richly dressed, with a crown on his
+head, all flaming with diamonds. He was of a noble aspect, and
+rather handsome, but looked sullen and discontented; and he
+kept rubbing his eyes and shading them with his hand, as if he
+did not live enough in the sunshine to be very fond of its
+light.
+
+As soon as this personage saw the affrighted Proserpina, he
+beckoned her to come a little nearer.
+
+"Do not be afraid," said he, with as cheerful a smile as he
+knew how to put on. "Come!  Will you not like to ride a little
+way with me, in my beautiful chariot?"
+
+But Proserpina was so alarmed, that she wished for nothing but
+to get out of his reach. And no wonder. The stranger did not
+look remarkably good-natured, in spite of his smile; and as for
+his voice, its tones were deep and stern, and sounded as much
+like the rumbling of an earthquake underground than anything
+else. As is always the case with children in trouble,
+Proserpina's first thought was to call for her mother.
+
+"Mother, Mother Ceres!" cried she, all in a tremble. "Come
+quickly and save me."
+
+But her voice was too faint for her mother to hear. Indeed, it
+is most probable that Ceres was then a thousand miles off,
+making the corn grow in some far distant country. Nor could it
+have availed her poor daughter, even had she been within
+hearing; for no sooner did Proserpina begin to cry out, than
+the stranger leaped to the ground, caught the child in his
+arms, and again mounted the chariot, shook the reins, and
+shouted to the four black horses to set off. They immediately
+broke into so swift a gallop, that it seemed rather like flying
+through the air than running along the earth. In a moment,
+Proserpina lost sight of the pleasant vale of Enna, in which
+she had always dwelt. Another instant, and even the summit of
+Mount Aetna had become so blue in the distance, that she could
+scarcely distinguish it from the smoke that gushed out of its
+crater. But still the poor child screamed, and scattered her
+apron full of flowers along the way, and left a long cry
+trailing behind the chariot; and many mothers, to whose ears it
+came, ran quickly to see if any mischief had befallen their
+children. But Mother Ceres was a great way off, and could not
+hear the cry.
+
+As they rode on, the stranger did his best to soothe her.
+
+"Why should you be so frightened, my pretty child?" said he,
+trying to soften his rough voice. "I promise not to do you any
+harm. What! you have been gathering flowers? Wait till we come
+to my palace, and I will give you a garden full of prettier
+flowers than those, all made of pearls, and diamonds, and
+rubies. Can you guess who I am? They call my name Pluto; and I
+am the king of diamonds and all other precious stones. Every
+atom of the gold and silver that lies under the earth belongs
+to me, to say nothing of the copper and iron, and of the coal
+mines, which supply me with abundance of fuel. Do you see this
+splendid crown upon my head? You may have it for a plaything.
+O, we shall be very good friends, and you will find me more
+agreeable than you expect, when once we get out of this
+troublesome sunshine."
+
+"Let me go home!" cried Proserpina. "Let me go home!"
+
+"My home is better than your mother's," answered King Pluto.
+"It is a palace, all made of gold, with crystal windows; and
+because there is little or no sunshine thereabouts, the
+apartments are illuminated with diamond lamps. You never saw
+anything half so magnificent as my throne. If you like, you may
+sit down on it, and be my little queen, and I will sit on the
+footstool."
+
+"I don't care for golden palaces and thrones," sobbed
+Proserpina. "Oh, my mother, my mother! Carry me back to my
+mother!"
+
+But King Pluto, as he called himself, only shouted to his
+steeds to go faster.
+
+"Pray do not be foolish, Proserpina," said he, in rather a
+sullen tone. "I offer you my palace and my crown, and all the
+riches that are under the earth; and you treat me as if I were
+doing you an injury. The one thing which my palace needs is a
+merry little maid, to run upstairs and down, and cheer up the
+rooms with her smile. And this is what you must do for King
+Pluto."
+
+"Never!" answered Proserpina, looking as miserable as she
+could. "I shall never smile again till you set me down at my
+mother's door."
+
+But she might just as well have talked to the wind that
+whistled past them, for Pluto urged on his horses, and went
+faster than ever. Proserpina continued to cry out, and screamed
+so long and so loudly that her poor little voice was almost
+screamed away; and when it was nothing but a whisper, she
+happened to cast her eyes over a great broad field of waving
+grain--and whom do you think she saw? Who, but Mother Ceres,
+making the corn grow, and too busy to notice the golden chariot
+as it went rattling along. The child mustered all her strength,
+and gave one more scream, but was out of sight before Ceres had
+time to turn her head.
+
+King Pluto had taken a road which now began to grow excessively
+gloomy. It was bordered on each side with rocks and precipices,
+between which the rumbling of the chariot wheels was
+reverberated with a noise like rolling thunder. The trees and
+bushes that grew in the crevices of the rocks had very dismal
+foliage; and by and by, although it was hardly noon, the air
+became obscured with a gray twilight. The black horses had
+rushed along so swiftly, that they were already beyond the
+limits of the sunshine. But the duskier it grew, the more did
+Pluto's visage assume an air of satisfaction. After all, he was
+not an ill-looking person, especially when he left off twisting
+his features into a smile that did not belong to them.
+Proserpina peeped at his face through the gathering dusk, and
+hoped that he might not be so very wicked as she at first
+thought him.
+
+"Ah, this twilight is truly refreshing," said King Pluto,
+"after being so tormented with that ugly and impertinent glare
+of the sun. How much more agreeable is lamplight or torchlight,
+more particularly when reflected from diamonds! It will be a
+magnificent sight, when we get to my palace."
+
+"Is it much farther?" asked Proserpina. "And will you carry me
+back when I have seen it?"
+
+"We will talk of that by and by," answered Pluto. "We are just
+entering my dominions. Do you see that tall gateway before us?
+When we pass those gates, we are at home. And there lies my
+faithful mastiff at the threshold. Cerberus! Cerberus! Come
+hither, my good dog!"
+
+So saying, Pluto pulled at the reins, and stopped the chariot
+right between the tall, massive pillars of the gateway. The
+mastiff of which he had spoken got up from the threshold, and
+stood on his hinder legs, so as to put his fore paws on the
+chariot wheel. But, my stars, what a strange dog it was! Why,
+he was a big, rough, ugly-looking monster, with three separate
+heads, and each of them fiercer than the two others; but fierce
+as they were, King Pluto patted them all. He seemed as fond of
+his three-headed dog as if it had been a sweet little spaniel,
+with silken ears and curly hair. Cerberus, on the other hand,
+was evidently rejoiced to see his master, and expressed his
+attachment, as other dogs do, by wagging his tail at a great
+rate. Proserpina's eyes being drawn to it by its brisk motion,
+she saw that this tail was neither more nor less than a live
+dragon, with fiery eyes, and fangs that had a very poisonous
+aspect. And while the three-headed Cerberus was fawning so
+lovingly on King Pluto, there was the dragon tail wagging
+against its will, and looking as cross and ill-natured as you
+can imagine, on its own separate account.
+
+"Will the dog bite me?" asked Proserpina, shrinking closer to
+Pluto. "What an ugly creature he is!"
+
+"O, never fear," answered her companion. "He never harms
+people, unless they try to enter my dominions without being
+sent for, or to get away when I wish to keep them here. Down,
+Cerberus! Now, my pretty Proserpina, we will drive on."
+
+On went the chariot, and King Pluto seemed greatly pleased to
+find himself once more in his own kingdom. He drew Proserpina's
+attention to the rich veins of gold that were to be seen among
+the rocks, and pointed to several places where one stroke of a
+pickaxe would loosen a bushel of diamonds. All along the road,
+indeed, there were sparkling gems, which would have been of
+inestimable value above ground, but which here were reckoned of
+the meaner sort and hardly worth a beggar's stooping for.
+
+Not far from the gateway, they came to a bridge, which seemed
+to be built of iron. Pluto stopped the chariot, and bade
+Proserpina look at the stream which was gliding so lazily
+beneath it. Never in her life had she beheld so torpid, so
+black, so muddy-looking a stream; its waters reflected no
+images of anything that was on the banks, and it moved as
+sluggishly as if it had quite forgotten which way it ought to
+flow, and had rather stagnate than flow either one way or the
+other.
+
+"This is the River Lethe,"  observed King Pluto. "Is it  not a
+very pleasant stream?"
+
+"I think it a very dismal one," answered Proserpina.
+
+"It suits my taste, however," answered Pluto, who was apt to be
+sullen when anybody disagreed with him. "At all events, its
+water has one excellent quality; for a single draught of it
+makes people forget every care and sorrow that has hitherto
+tormented them. Only sip a little of it, my dear Proserpina,
+and you will instantly cease to grieve for your mother, and
+will have nothing in your memory that can prevent your being
+perfectly happy in my palace. I will send for some, in a golden
+goblet, the moment we arrive."
+
+"O, no, no, no!" cried Proserpina, weeping afresh. "I had a
+thousand times rather be miserable with remembering my mother,
+than be happy in forgetting her. That dear, dear mother! I
+never, never will forget her."
+
+"We shall see," said King Pluto. "You do not know what fine
+times we will have in my palace. Here we are just at the
+portal. These pillars are solid gold, I assure you."
+
+He alighted from the chariot, and taking Proserpina in his
+arms, carried her up a lofty flight of steps into the great
+hall of the palace. It was splendidly illuminated by means of
+large precious stones, of various hues, which seemed to burn
+like so many lamps, and glowed with a hundred-fold radiance all
+through the vast apartment. And yet there was a kind of gloom
+in the midst of this enchanted light; nor was there a single
+object in the hall that was really agreeable to behold, except
+the little Proserpina herself, a lovely child, with one earthly
+flower which she had not let fall from her hand. It is my
+opinion that even King Pluto had never been happy in his
+palace, and that this was the true reason why he had stolen
+away Proserpina, in order that he might have something to love,
+instead of cheating his heart any longer with this tiresome
+magnificence. And, though he pretended to dislike the sunshine
+of the upper world, yet the effect of the child's presence,
+bedimmed as she was by her tears, was as if a faint and watery
+sunbeam had somehow or other found its way into the enchanted
+hall.
+
+Pluto now summoned his domestics, and bade them lose no time in
+preparing a most sumptuous banquet, and above all things, not
+to fail of setting a golden beaker of the water of Lethe by
+Proserpina's plate.
+
+"I will neither drink that nor anything else," said Proserpina.
+"Nor will I taste a morsel of food, even if you keep me forever
+in your palace."
+
+"I should be sorry for that," replied King Pluto, patting her
+cheek; for he really wished to be kind, if he had only known
+how. "You are a spoiled child, I perceive, my little
+Proserpina; but when you see the nice things which my cook will
+make for you, your appetite will quickly come again."
+
+Then, sending for the head cook, he gave strict orders that all
+sorts of delicacies, such as young people are usually fond of,
+should be set before Proserpina. He had a secret motive in
+this; for, you are to understand, it is a fixed law, that when
+persons are carried off to the land of magic, if they once
+taste any food there, they can never get back to their friends.
+Now, if King Pluto had been cunning enough to offer Proserpina
+some fruit, or bread and milk (which was the simple fare to
+which the child had always been accustomed), it is very
+probable that she would soon have been tempted to eat it. But
+he left the matter entirely to his cook, who, like all other
+cooks, considered nothing fit to eat unless it were rich
+pastry, or highly-seasoned meat, or spiced sweet cakes--things
+which Proserpina's mother had never given her, and the smell of
+which quite took away her appetite, instead of sharpening it.
+
+But my story must now clamber out of King Pluto's dominions,
+and see what Mother Ceres had been about, since she was bereft
+of her daughter. We had a glimpse of her, as you remember, half
+hidden among the waving grain, while the four black steeds were
+swiftly whirling along the chariot, in which her beloved
+Proserpina was so unwillingly borne away. You recollect, too,
+the loud scream which Proserpina gave, just when the chariot
+was out of sight.
+
+Of all the child's outcries, this last shriek was the only one
+that reached the ears of Mother Ceres. She had mistaken the
+rumbling of the chariot wheels for a peal of thunder, and
+imagined that a shower was coming up, and that it would assist
+her in making the corn grow. But, at the sound of Proserpina's
+shriek, she started, and looked about in every direction, not
+knowing whence it came, but feeling almost certain that it was
+her daughter's voice. It seemed so unaccountable, however, that
+the girl should have strayed over so many lands and seas (which
+she herself could not have traversed without the aid of her
+winged dragons), that the good Ceres tried to believe that it
+must be the child of some other parent, and not her own darling
+Proserpina, who had uttered this lamentable cry. Nevertheless,
+it troubled her with a vast many tender fears, such as are
+ready to bestir themselves in every mother's heart, when she
+finds it necessary to go away from her dear children without
+leaving them under the care of some maiden aunt, or other such
+faithful guardian. So she quickly left the field in which she
+had been so busy; and, as her work was not half done, the grain
+looked, next day, as if it needed both sun and rain, and as if
+it were blighted in the ear, and had something the matter with
+its roots.
+
+The pair of dragons must have had very nimble wings; for, in
+less than an hour, Mother Ceres had alighted at the door of her
+home, and found it empty. Knowing, however, that the child was
+fond of sporting on the sea-shore, she hastened thither as fast
+as she could, and there beheld the wet faces of the poor sea
+nymphs peeping over a wave. All this while, the good creatures
+had been waiting on the bank of sponge, and once, every half
+minute or so, had popped up their four heads above water, to
+see if their playmate were yet coming back. When they saw
+Mother Ceres, they sat down on the crest of the surf wave, and
+let it toss them ashore at her feet.
+
+"Where is Proserpina?" cried Ceres. "Where is my child? Tell
+me, you naughty sea nymphs, have you enticed her under the
+sea?"
+
+"O, no, good Mother Ceres," said the innocent sea nymphs,
+tossing back their green ringlets, and looking her in the face.
+"We never should dream of such a thing. Proserpina has been at
+play with us, it is true; but she left us a long while ago,
+meaning only to run a little way upon the dry land, and gather
+some flowers for a wreath. This was early in the day, and we
+have seen nothing of her since."
+
+Ceres scarcely waited to hear what the nymphs had to say,
+before she hurried off to make inquiries all through the
+neighborhood. But nobody told her anything that would enable
+the poor mother to guess what had become of Proserpina. A
+fisherman, it is true, had noticed her little footprints in the
+sand, as he went homeward along the beach with a basket of
+fish; a rustic had seen the child stooping to gather flowers;
+several persons had heard either the rattling of chariot
+wheels, or the rumbling of distant thunder; and one old woman,
+while plucking vervain and catnip, had heard a scream, but
+supposed it to be some childish nonsense, and therefore did not
+take the trouble to look up. The stupid people! It took them
+such a tedious while to tell the nothing that they knew, that
+it was dark night before Mother Ceres found out that she must
+seek her daughter elsewhere. So she lighted a torch, and set
+forth, resolving never to come back until Proserpina was
+discovered.
+
+In her haste and trouble of mind, she quite forgot her car and
+the winged dragons; or, it may be, she thought that she could
+follow up the search more thoroughly on foot. At all events,
+this was the way in which she began her sorrowful journey,
+holding her torch before her, and looking carefully at every
+object along the path. And as it happened, she had not gone far
+before she found one of the magnificent flowers which grew on
+the shrub that Proserpina had pulled up.
+
+"Ha!" thought Mother Ceres, examining it by torchlight. "Here
+is mischief in this flower! The earth did not produce it by any
+help of mine, nor of its own accord. It is the work of
+enchantment, and is therefore poisonous; and perhaps it has
+poisoned my poor child."
+
+But she put the poisonous flower in her bosom, not knowing
+whether she might ever find any other memorial of Proserpina.
+
+All night long, at the door of every cottage and farm-house,
+Ceres knocked, and called up the weary laborers to inquire if
+they had seen her child; and they stood, gaping and half-
+asleep, at the threshold, and answered her pityingly, and
+besought her to come in and rest. At the portal of every
+palace, too, she made so loud a summons that the menials
+hurried to throw open the gate, thinking that it must be some
+great king or queen, who would demand a banquet for supper and
+a stately chamber to repose in. And when they saw only a sad
+and anxious woman, with a torch in her hand and a wreath of
+withered poppies on her head, they spoke rudely, and sometimes
+threatened to set the dogs upon her. But nobody had seen
+Proserpina, nor could give Mother Ceres the least hint which
+way to seek her. Thus passed the night; and still she continued
+her search without sitting down to rest, or stopping to take
+food, or even remembering to put out the torch although first
+the rosy dawn, and then the glad light of the morning sun, made
+its red flame look thin and pale. But I wonder what sort of
+stuff this torch was made of; for it burned dimly through the
+day, and, at night, was as bright as ever, and never was
+extinguished by the rain or wind, in all the weary days and
+nights while Ceres was seeking for Proserpina.
+
+It was not merely of human beings that she asked tidings of her
+daughter. In the woods and by the streams, she met creatures of
+another nature, who used, in those old times, to haunt the
+pleasant and solitary places, and were very sociable with
+persons who understood their language and customs, as Mother
+Ceres did. Sometimes, for instance, she tapped with her finger
+against the knotted trunk of a majestic oak; and immediately
+its rude bark would cleave asunder, and forth would step a
+beautiful maiden, who was the hamadryad of the oak, dwelling
+inside of it, and sharing its long life, and rejoicing when its
+green leaves sported with the breeze. But not one of these
+leafy damsels had seen Proserpina. Then, going a little
+farther, Ceres would, perhaps, come to a fountain, gushing out
+of a pebbly hollow in the earth, and would dabble with her hand
+in the water. Behold, up through its sandy and pebbly bed,
+along with the fountain's gush, a young woman with dripping
+hair would arise, and stand gazing at Mother Ceres, half out of
+the water, and undulating up and down with its ever- restless
+motion. But when the mother asked whether her poor lost child
+had stopped to drink out of the fountain, the naiad, with
+weeping eyes (for these water-nymphs had tears to spare for
+everybody's grief, would answer "No!" in a murmuring voice,
+which was just like the murmur of the stream.
+
+Often, likewise, she encountered fauns, who looked like
+sunburnt country people, except that they had hairy ears, and
+little horns upon their foreheads, and the hinder legs of
+goats, on which they gamboled merrily about the woods and
+fields. They were a frolicsome kind of creature but grew as sad
+as their cheerful dispositions would allow, when Ceres inquired
+for her daughter, and they had no good news to tell. But
+sometimes she same suddenly upon a rude gang of satyrs, who had
+faces like monkeys, and horses' tails behind them, and who were
+generally dancing in a very boisterous manner, with shouts of
+noisy laughter. When she stopped to question them, they would
+only laugh the louder, and make new merriment out of the lone
+woman's distress. How unkind of those ugly satyrs! And once,
+while crossing a solitary sheep pasture, she saw a personage
+named Pan, seated at the foot of a tall rock, and making music
+on a shepherd's flute. He, too, had horns, and hairy ears, and
+goats' feet; but, being acquainted with Mother Ceres, he
+answered her question as civilly as he knew how, and invited
+her to taste some milk and honey out of a wooden bowl. But
+neither could Pan tell her what had become of Proserpina, any
+better than the rest of these wild people.
+
+And thus Mother Ceres went wandering about for nine long days
+and nights, finding no trace of Proserpina, unless it were now
+and then a withered flower; and these she picked up and put in
+her bosom, because she fancied that they might have fallen from
+her poor child's hand. All day she traveled onward through the
+hot sun; and, at night again, the flame of the torch would
+redden and gleam along the pathway, and she continued her
+search by its light, without ever sitting down to rest.
+
+On the tenth day, she chanced to espy the mouth of a cavern
+within which (though it was bright noon everywhere else) there
+would have been only a dusky twilight; but it so happened that
+a torch was burning there. It flickered, and struggled with the
+duskiness, but could not half light up the gloomy cavern with
+all its melancholy glimmer. Ceres was resolved to leave no spot
+without a search; so she peeped into the entrance of the cave,
+and lighted it up a little more, by holding her own torch
+before her. In so doing, she caught a glimpse of what seemed to
+be a woman, sitting on the brown leaves of the last autumn, a
+great heap of which had been swept into the cave by the wind.
+This woman (if woman it were) was by no means so beautiful as
+many of her sex; for her head, they tell me, was shaped very
+much like a dog's, and, by way of ornament, she wore a wreath
+of snakes around it. But Mother Ceres, the moment she saw her,
+knew that this was an odd kind of a person, who put all her
+enjoyment in being miserable, and never would have a word to
+say to other people, unless they were as melancholy and
+wretched as she herself delighted to be.
+
+"I am wretched enough now," thought poor Ceres, "to talk with
+this melancholy Hecate, were she ten times sadder than ever she
+was yet." So she stepped into the cave, and sat down on the
+withered leaves by the dog-headed woman's side. In all the
+world, since her daughter's loss, she had found no other
+companion.
+
+"O Hecate," said she, "if ever you lose a daughter, you will
+know what sorrow is. Tell me, for pity's sake, have you seen my
+poor child Proserpina pass by the mouth of your cavern?"
+
+"No," answered Hecate, in a cracked voice, and sighing betwixt
+every word or two; "no, Mother Ceres, I have seen nothing of
+your daughter. But my ears, you must know, are made in such a
+way, that all cries of distress and affright all over the world
+are pretty sure to find their way to them; and nine days ago,
+as I sat in my cave, making myself very miserable, I heard the
+voice of a young girl, shrieking as if in great distress.
+Something terrible has happened to the child, you may rest
+assured. As well as I could judge, a dragon, or some other
+cruel monster, was carrying her away."
+
+"You kill me by saying so," cried Ceres, almost ready to faint.
+"Where was the sound, and which way did it seem to go?"
+
+"It passed very swiftly along," said Hecate, "and, at the same
+time, there was a heavy rumbling of wheels towards the
+eastward. I can tell you nothing more, except that, in my
+honest opinion, you will never see your daughter again. The
+best advice I can give you is, to take up your abode in this
+cavern, where we will be the two most wretched women in the
+world."
+
+"Not yet, dark Hecate," replied Ceres. "But do you first come
+with your torch, and help me to seek for my lost child. And
+when there shall be no more hope of finding her (if that black
+day is ordained to come), then, if you will give me room to
+fling myself down, either on these withered leaves or on the
+naked rock, I will show what it is to be miserable. But, until
+I know that she has perished from the face of the earth, I will
+not allow myself space even to grieve."
+
+The dismal Hecate did not much like the idea of going abroad
+into the sunny world. But then she reflected that the sorrow of
+the disconsolate Ceres would be like a gloomy twilight round
+about them both, let the sun shine ever so brightly, and that
+therefore she might enjoy her bad spirits quite as well as if
+she were to stay in the cave. So she finally consented to go,
+and they set out together, both carrying torches, although it
+was broad daylight and clear sunshine. The torchlight seemed to
+make a gloom; so that the people whom they met, along the road,
+could not very distinctly see their figures; and, indeed, if
+they once caught a glimpse of Hecate, with the wreath of snakes
+round her forehead, they generally thought it prudent to run
+away, without waiting for a second glance.
+
+As the pair traveled along in this woe-begone manner, a thought
+struck Ceres.
+
+"There is one person," she exclaimed, "who must have seen my
+poor child, and can doubtless tell what has become of her. Why
+did not I think of him before? It is Phoebus."
+
+"What," said Hecate, "the young man that always sits in the
+sunshine? O, pray do not think of going near him. He is a gay,
+light, frivolous young fellow, and will only smile in your
+face. And besides, there is such a glare of the sun about him,
+that he will quite blind my poor eyes, which I have almost wept
+away already."
+
+"You have promised to be my companion," answered Ceres. "Come,
+let us make haste, or the sunshine will be gone, and Phoebus
+along with it."
+
+Accordingly, they went along in quest of Phoebus, both of them
+sighing grievously, and Hecate, to say the truth, making a
+great deal worse lamentation than Ceres; for all the pleasure
+she had, you know, lay in being miserable, and therefore she
+made the most of it. By and by, after a pretty long journey,
+they arrived at the sunniest spot in the whole world. There
+they beheld a beautiful young man, with long, curling ringlets,
+which seemed to be made of golden sunbeams; his garments were
+like light summer clouds; and the expression of his face was so
+exceedingly vivid, that Hecate held her hands before her eyes,
+muttering that he ought to wear a black veil. Phoebus (for this
+was the very person whom they were seeking) had a lyre in his
+hands, and was making its chords tremble with sweet music; at
+the same time singing a most exquisite song, which he had
+recently composed. For, beside a great many other
+accomplishments, this young man was renowned for his admirable
+poetry.
+
+As Ceres and her dismal companion approached him, Phoebus
+smiled on them so cheerfully that Hecate's wreath of snakes
+gave a spiteful hiss, and Hecate heartily wished herself back
+in her cave. But as for Ceres, she was too earnest in her grief
+either to know or care whether Phoebus smiled or frowned.
+
+"Phoebus!" exclaimed she, "I am in great trouble, and have come
+to you for assistance. Can you tell me what has become of my
+dear child Proserpina?"
+
+"Proserpina! Proserpina, did you call her name?" answered
+Phoebus, endeavoring to recollect; for there was such a
+continual flow of pleasant ideas in his mind, that he was apt
+to forget what had happened no longer ago than yesterday. "Ah,
+yes, I remember her now. A very lovely child, indeed. I am
+happy to tell you, my dear madam, that I did see the little
+Proserpina not many days ago. You may make yourself perfectly
+easy about her. She is safe, and in excellent hands."
+
+"O, where is my dear child?" cried Ceres, clasping her hands,
+and flinging herself at his feet.
+
+"Why," said Phoebus--and as he spoke he kept touching his lyre
+so as to make a thread of music run in and out among his
+words--"as the little damsel was gathering flowers (and she has
+really a very exquisite taste for flowers), she was suddenly
+snatched up by King Pluto, and carried off to his dominions. I
+have never been in that part of the universe; but the royal
+palace, I am told, is built in a very noble style of
+architecture, and of the most splendid and costly materials.
+Gold, diamonds, pearls, and all manner of precious stones will
+be your daughter's ordinary playthings. I recommend to you, my
+dear lady, to give yourself no uneasiness. Proserpina's sense
+of beauty will be duly gratified, and even in spite of the lack
+of sunshine, she will lead a very enviable life."
+
+"Hush! Say not such a word!" answered Ceres, indignantly. "What
+is there to gratify her heart? What are all the splendors you
+speak of without affection? I must have her back again. Will
+you go with me you go with me, Phoebus, to demand my daughter
+of this wicked Pluto?"
+
+"Pray excuse me," replied Phoebus, with an elegant obeisance.
+"I certainly wish you success, and regret that my own affairs
+are so immediately pressing that I cannot have the pleasure of
+attending you. Besides, I am not upon the best of terms with
+King Pluto. To tell you the truth, his three-headed mastiff
+would never let me pass the gateway; for I should be compelled
+to take a sheaf of sunbeams along with me, and those, you know,
+are forbidden things in Pluto's kingdom."
+
+"Ah, Phoebus," said Ceres, with bitter meaning in her words,
+"you have a harp instead of a heart. Farewell."
+
+"Will not you stay a moment," asked Phoebus, "and hear me turn
+the pretty and touching story of Proserpina into extemporary verses?"
+
+But Ceres shook her head, and hastened away, along with Hecate.
+Phoebus (who, as I have told you, was an exquisite poet)
+forthwith began to make an ode about the poor mother's grief;
+and, if we were to judge of his sensibility by this beautiful
+production, he must have been endowed with a very tender heart.
+But when a poet gets into the habit of using his heartstrings
+to make chords for his lyre, he may thrum upon them as much as
+he will, without any great pain to himself. Accordingly, though
+Phoebus sang a very sad song, he was as merry all the while as
+were the sunbeams amid which he dwelt.
+
+Poor Mother Ceres had now found out what had become of her
+daughter, but was not a whit happier than before. Her case, on
+the contrary, looked more desperate than ever. As long as
+Proserpina was above ground, there might have been hopes of
+regaining her. But now that the poor child was shut up within
+the iron gates of the king of the mines, at the threshold of
+which lay the three-headed Cerberus, there seemed no
+possibility of her ever making her escape. The dismal Hecate,
+who loved to take the darkest view of things, told Ceres that
+she had better come with her to the cavern, and spend the rest
+of her life in being miserable. Ceres answered, that Hecate was
+welcome to go back thither herself, but that, for her part, she
+would wander about the earth in quest of the entrance to King
+Pluto's dominions. And Hecate took her at her word, and hurried
+back to her beloved cave, frightening a great many little
+children with a glimpse of her dog's face as she went.
+
+Poor Mother Ceres! It is melancholy to think of her, pursuing
+her toilsome way, all alone, and holding up that never-dying
+torch, the flame of which seemed an emblem of the grief and
+hope that burned together in her heart.
+
+So much did she suffer, that, though her aspect had been quite
+youthful when her troubles began, she grew to look like an
+elderly person in a very brief time. She cared not how she was
+dressed, nor had she ever thought of flinging away the wreath
+of withered poppies, which she put on the very morning of
+Proserpina's disappearance. She roamed about in so wild a way,
+and with her hair so disheveled, that people took her for some
+distracted creature, and never dreamed that this was Mother
+Ceres, who had the oversight of every seed which the husbandman
+planted. Nowadays, however, she gave herself no trouble about
+seed time nor harvest, but left the farmers to take care of
+their own affairs, and the crops to fade or flourish, as the
+case might be. There was nothing, now, in which Ceres seemed to
+feel an interest, unless when she saw children at play, or
+gathering flowers along the wayside. Then, indeed, she would
+stand and gaze at them with tears in her eyes. The children,
+too, appeared to have a sympathy with her grief, and would
+cluster themselves in a little group about her knees, and look
+up wistfully in her face; and Ceres, after giving them a kiss
+all round, would lead them to their homes, and advise their
+mothers never to let them stray out of sight.
+
+"For if they do," said she, "it may happen to you, as it has to
+me, that the iron-hearted King Pluto will take a liking to your
+darlings, and snatch them up in his chariot, and carry them
+away."
+
+One day, during her pilgrimage in quest of the entrance to
+Pluto's kingdom, she came to the palace of King Cereus, who
+reigned at Eleusis. Ascending a lofty flight of steps, she
+entered the portal, and found the royal household in very great
+alarm about the queen's baby. The infant, it seems, was sickly
+(being troubled with its teeth, I suppose), and would take no
+food, and was all the time moaning with pain. The queen--her
+name was Metanira--was desirous of funding a nurse; and when
+she beheld a woman of matronly aspect coming up the palace
+steps, she thought, in her own mind, that here was the very
+person whom she needed. So Queen Metanira ran to the door, with
+the poor wailing baby in her arms, and besought Ceres to take
+charge of it, or, at least, to tell her what would do it good.
+
+"Will you trust the child entirely to me?" asked Ceres.
+
+"Yes, and gladly, too," answered the queen, "if you will devote
+all your time to him. For I can see that you have been a
+mother."
+
+"You are right," said Ceres. "I once had a child of my own.
+Well; I will be the nurse of this poor, sickly boy. But beware,
+I warn you, that you do not interfere with any kind of
+treatment which I may judge proper for him. If you do so, the
+poor infant must suffer for his mother's folly."
+
+Then she kissed the child, and it seemed to do him good; for he
+smiled and nestled closely into her bosom.
+
+So Mother Ceres set her torch in a corner (where it kept
+burning all the while), and took up her abode in the palace of
+King Cereus, as nurse to the little Prince Demophoon. She
+treated him as if he were her own child, and allowed neither
+the king nor the queen to say whether he should be bathed in
+warm or cold water, or what he should eat, or how often he
+should take the air, or when he should be put to bed. You would
+hardly believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby
+prince got rid of his ailments, and grew fat, and rosy, and
+strong, and how he had two rows of ivory teeth in less time
+than any other little fellow, before or since. Instead of the
+palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in the world (as his
+own mother confessed him to be, when Ceres first took him in
+charge), he was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing,
+kicking up his heels, and rolling from one end of the room to
+the other. All the good women of the neighborhood crowded to
+the palace, and held up their hands, in unutterable amazement,
+at the beauty and wholesomeness of this darling little prince.
+Their wonder was the greater, because he was never seen to
+taste any food; not even so much as a cup of milk.
+
+"Pray, nurse," the queen kept saying, "how is it that you make
+the child thrive so?"
+
+"I was a mother once," Ceres always replied; "and having nursed
+my own child, I know what other children need."
+
+But Queen Metanira, as was very natural, had a great curiosity
+to know precisely what the nurse did to her child. One night,
+therefore, she hid herself in the chamber where Ceres and the
+little prince were accustomed to sleep. There was a fire in the
+chimney, and it had now crumbled into great coals and embers,
+which lay glowing on the hearth, with a blaze flickering up now
+and then, and flinging a warm and ruddy light upon the walls.
+Ceres sat before the hearth with the child in her lap, and the
+firelight making her shadow dance upon the ceiling overhead.
+She undressed the little prince, and bathed him all over with
+some fragrant liquid out of a vase. The next thing she did was
+to rake back the red embers, and make a hollow place among
+them, just where the backlog had been. At last, while the baby
+was crowing, and clapping its fat little hands, and laughing in
+the nurse's face (just as you may have seen your little brother
+or sister do before going into its warm bath), Ceres suddenly
+laid him, all naked as he was, in the hollow among the red-hot
+embers. She then raked the ashes over him, and turned quietly
+away.
+
+You may imagine, if you can, how Queen Metanira shrieked,
+thinking nothing less than that her dear child would be burned
+to a cinder. She burst forth from her hiding-place, and running
+to the hearth, raked open the fire, and snatched up poor little
+Prince Demophoon out of his bed of live coals, one of which he
+was gripping in each of his fists. He immediately set up a
+grievous cry, as babies are apt to do, when rudely startled out
+of a sound sleep. To the queen's astonishment and joy, she
+could perceive no token of the child's being injured by the hot
+fire in which he had lain. She now turned to Mother Ceres, and
+asked her to explain the mystery.
+
+"Foolish woman," answered Ceres, "did you not promise to
+intrust this poor infant entirely to me? You little know the
+mischief you have done him. Had you left him to my care, he
+would have grown up like a child of celestial birth, endowed
+with superhuman strength and intelligence, and would have lived
+forever. Do you imagine that earthly children are to become
+immortal without being tempered to it in the fiercest heat of
+the fire? But you have ruined your own son. For though he will
+be a strong man and a hero in his day, yet, on account of your
+folly, he will grow old, and finally die, like the sons of
+other women. The weak tenderness of his mother has cost the
+poor boy an immortality. Farewell."
+
+Saying these words, she kissed the little Prince Demophoon, and
+sighed to think what he had lost, and took her departure
+without heeding Queen Metanira, who entreated her to remain,
+and cover up the child among the hot embers as often as she
+pleased. Poor baby! He never slept so warmly again.
+
+While she dwelt in the king's palace, Mother Ceres had been so
+continually occupied with taking care of the young prince, that
+her heart was a little lightened of its grief for Proserpina.
+But now, having nothing else to busy herself about, she became
+just as wretched as before. At length, in her despair, she came
+to the dreadful resolution that not a stalk of grain, nor a
+blade of grass, not a potato, nor a turnip, nor any other
+vegetable that was good for man or beast to eat, should be
+suffered to grow until her daughter were restored. She even
+forbade the flowers to bloom, lest somebody's heart should be
+cheered by their beauty.
+
+Now, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to
+poke itself out of the ground, without the especial permission
+of Ceres, you may conceive what a terrible calamity had here
+fallen upon the earth. The husbandmen plowed and planted as
+usual; but there lay the rich black furrows, all as barren as a
+desert of sand. The pastures looked as brown in the sweet month
+of June as ever they did in chill November. The rich man's
+broad acres and the cottager's small garden patch were equally
+blighted. Every little girl's flower bed showed nothing but dry
+stalks. The old people shook their white heads, and said that
+the earth had grown aged like themselves, and was no longer
+capable of wearing the warm smile of summer on its face. It was
+really piteous to see the poor, starving cattle and sheep, how
+they followed behind Ceres, lowing and bleating, as if their
+instinct taught them to expect help from her; and everybody
+that was acquainted with her power besought her to have mercy
+on the human race, and, at all events, to let the grass grow.
+But Mother Ceres, though naturally of an affectionate
+disposition, was now inexorable.
+
+"Never," said she. "If the earth is ever again to see any
+verdure, it must first grow along the path which my daughter
+will tread in coming back to me."
+
+Finally, as there seemed to be no other remedy, our old friend
+Quicksilver was sent post-haste to King Pluto, in hopes that he
+might be persuaded to undo the mischief he had done, and to set
+everything right again, by giving up Proserpina. Quicksilver
+accordingly made the best of his way to the great gate, took a
+flying leap right over the three-headed mastiff, and stood at
+the door of the palace in an inconceivably short time. The
+servants knew him both by his face and garb; for his short
+cloak, and his winged cap and shoes, and his snaky staff had
+often been seen thereabouts in times gone by. He requested to
+be shown immediately into the king's presence; and Pluto, who
+heard his voice from the top of the stairs, and who loved to
+recreate himself with Quicksilver's merry talk, called out to
+him to come up. And while they settle their business together,
+we must inquire what Proserpina had been doing ever since we
+saw her last.
+
+The child had declared, as you may remember, that she would not
+taste a mouthful of food as long as she should be compelled to
+remain in King Pluto's palace. How she contrived to maintain
+her resolution, and at the same time to keep herself tolerably
+plump and rosy, is more than I can explain; but some young
+ladies, I am given to understand, possess the faculty of living
+on air, and Proserpina seems to have possessed it too. At any
+rate, it was now six months since she left the outside of the
+earth; and not a morsel, so far as the attendants were able to
+testify, had yet passed between her teeth. This was the more
+creditable to Proserpina, inasmuch as King Pluto had caused her
+to be tempted day by day, with all manner of sweetmeats, and
+richly-preserved fruits, and delicacies of every sort, such as
+young people are generally most fond of. But her good mother
+had often told her of the hurtfulness of these things; and for
+that reason alone, if there had been no other, she would have
+resolutely refused to taste them.
+
+All this time, being of a cheerful and active disposition, the
+little damsel was not quite so unhappy as you may have
+supposed. The immense palace had a thousand rooms, and was full
+of beautiful and wonderful objects. There was a never-ceasing
+gloom, it is true, which half hid itself among the innumerable
+pillars, gliding before the child as she wandered among them,
+and treading stealthily behind her in the echo of her
+footsteps. Neither was all the dazzle of the precious stones,
+which flamed with their own light, worth one gleam of natural
+sunshine; nor could the most brilliant of the many-colored
+gems, which Proserpina had for playthings, vie with the simple
+beauty of the flowers she used to gather. But still, whenever
+the girl went among those gilded halls and chambers, it seemed
+as if she carried nature and sunshine along with her, and as if
+she scattered dewy blossoms on her right hand and on her left.
+After Proserpina came, the palace was no longer the same abode
+of stately artifice and dismal magnificence that it had before
+been. The inhabitants all felt this, and King Pluto more than
+any of them.
+
+"My own little Proserpina," he used to say. "I wish you could
+like me a little better. We gloomy and cloudy-natured persons
+have often as warm hearts, at bottom, as those of a more
+cheerful character. If you would only stay with me of your own
+accord, it would make me happier than the possession of a
+hundred such palaces as this."
+
+"Ah," said Proserpina, "you should have tried to make me like
+you before carrying me off. And the best thing you can now do
+is, to let me go again. Then I might remember you sometimes,
+and think that you were as kind as you knew how to be. Perhaps,
+too, one day or other, I might come back, and pay you a visit."
+
+"No, no," answered Pluto, with his gloomy smile, "I will not
+trust you for that. You are too fond of living in the broad
+daylight, and gathering flowers. What an idle and childish
+taste that is! Are not these gems, which I have ordered to be
+dug for you, and which are richer than any in my crown--are
+they not prettier than a violet?"
+
+"Not half so pretty," said Proserpina, snatching the gems from
+Pluto's hand, and flinging them to the other end of the hall.
+"O my sweet violets, shall I never see you again?"
+
+And then she burst into tears. But young people's tears have
+very little saltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the
+eyes so much as those of grown persons; so that it is not to be
+wondered at, if, a few moments afterwards, Proserpina was
+sporting through the hall almost as merrily as she and the four
+sea nymphs had sported along the edge of the surf wave. King
+Pluto gazed after her, and wished that he, too, was a child.
+And little Proserpina, when she turned about, and beheld this
+great king standing in his splendid hall, and looking so grand,
+and so melancholy, and so lonesome, was smitten with a kind of
+pity. She ran back to him, and, for the first time in all her
+life, put her small, soft hand in his.
+
+"I love you a little," whispered she, looking up in his face.
+
+"Do you, indeed, my dear child?" cried Pluto, bending his dark
+face down to kiss her; but Proserpina shrank away from the
+kiss, for, though his features were noble, they were very dusky
+and grim. "Well, I have not deserved it of you, after keeping
+you a prisoner for so many months, and starving you besides.
+Are you not terribly hungry? Is there nothing which I can get
+you to eat?"
+
+In asking this question, the king of the mines had a very
+cunning purpose; for, you will recollect, if Proserpina tasted
+a morsel of food in his dominions, she would never afterwards
+be at liberty to quit them.
+
+"No indeed," said Proserpina. "Your head cook is always baking,
+and stewing, and roasting, and rolling out paste, and
+contriving one dish or another, which he imagines may be to my
+liking. But he might just as well save himself the trouble,
+poor, fat little man that he is. I have no appetite for
+anything in the world, unless it were a slice of bread, of my
+mother's own baking, or a little fruit out of her garden."
+
+When Pluto heard this, he began to see that he had mistaken the
+best method of tempting Proserpina to eat. The cook's made
+dishes and artificial dainties were not half so delicious, in
+the good child's opinion, as the simple fare to which Mother
+Ceres had accustomed her. Wondering that he had never thought
+of it before, the king now sent one of his trusty attendants
+with a large basket, to get some of the finest and juiciest
+pears, peaches, and plums which could anywhere be found in the
+upper world. Unfortunately, however, this was during the time
+when Ceres had forbidden any fruits or vegetables to grow; and,
+after seeking all over the earth, King Pluto's servant found
+only a single pomegranate, and that so dried up as not to be
+worth eating. Nevertheless, since there was no better to be
+had, he brought this dry, old withered pomegranate home to the
+palace.
+
+put it on a magnificent golden salver, and carried it up to
+Proserpina. Now, it happened, curiously enough, that, just as
+the servant was bringing the pomegranate into the back door of
+the palace, our friend Quicksilver had gone up the front steps,
+on his errand to get Proserpina away from King Pluto.
+
+As soon as Proserpina saw the pomegranate on the golden salver,
+she told the servant he had better take it away again.
+
+"I shall not touch it, I assure you," said she. "If I were ever
+so hungry, I should never think of eating such a miserable, dry
+pomegranate as that."
+
+"It is the only one in the world," said the servant.
+
+He set down the golden salver, with the wizened pomegranate
+upon it, and left the room. When he was gone, Proserpina could
+not help coming close to the table, and looking at this poor
+specimen of dried fruit with a great deal of eagerness; for, to
+say the truth, on seeing something that suited her taste, she
+felt all the six months' appetite taking possession of her at
+once. To be sure, it was a very wretched-looking pomegranate,
+and seemed to have no more juice in it than an oyster shell.
+But there was no choice of such things in King Pluto's palace.
+This was the first fruit she had seen there, and the last she
+was ever likely to see; and unless she ate it up immediately,
+it would grow drier than it already was, and be wholly unfit to
+eat.
+
+"At least, I may smell it," thought Proserpina.
+
+So she took up the pomegranate, and applied it to her nose;
+and, somehow or other, being in such close neighborhood to her
+mouth, the fruit found its way into that little red cave. Dear
+me! what an everlasting pity! Before Proserpina knew what she
+was about, her teeth had actually bitten it, of their own
+accord. Just as this fatal deed was done, the door of the
+apartment opened, and in came King Pluto, followed by
+Quicksilver, who had been urging him to let his little prisoner
+go. At the first noise of their entrance, Proserpina withdrew
+the pomegranate from her mouth. But Quicksilver (whose eyes
+were very keen, and his wits the sharpest that ever anybody
+had) perceived that the child was a little confused; and seeing
+the empty salver, he suspected that she had been taking a sly
+nibble of something or other. As for honest Pluto, he never
+guessed at the secret.
+
+"My little Proserpina," said the king, sitting down, and
+affectionately drawing her between his knees, "here is
+Quicksilver, who tells me that a great many misfortunes have
+befallen innocent people on account of my detaining you in my
+dominions. To confess the truth, I myself had already reflected
+that it was an unjustifiable act to take you away from your
+good mother. But, then, you must consider, my dear child, that
+this vast palace is apt to be gloomy (although the precious
+stones certainly shine very bright), and that I am not of the
+most cheerful disposition, and that therefore it was a natural
+thing enough to seek for the society of some merrier creature
+than myself. I hoped you would take my crown for a plaything,
+and me--ah, you laugh, naughty Proserpina--me, grim as I am,
+for a playmate. It was a silly expectation."
+
+"Not so extremely silly," whispered Proserpina. "You have
+really amused me very much, sometimes."
+
+"Thank you," said King Pluto, rather dryly. "But I can see
+plainly enough, that you think my palace a dusky prison, and me
+the iron-hearted keeper of it. And an iron heart I should
+surely have, if I could detain you here any longer, my poor
+child, when it is now six months since you tasted food. I give
+you your liberty. Go with Quicksilver. Hasten home to your dear
+mother."
+
+Now, although you may not have supposed it, Proserpina found it
+impossible to take leave of poor King Pluto without some
+regrets, and a good deal of compunction for not telling him
+about the pomegranate. She even shed a tear or two, thinking
+how lonely and cheerless the great palace would seem to him,
+with all its ugly glare of artificial light, after she
+herself--his one little ray of natural sunshine, whom he had
+stolen, to be sure, but only because he valued her so
+much--after she should have departed. I know not how many kind
+things she might have said to the disconsolate king of the
+mines, had not Quicksilver hurried her way.
+
+"Come along quickly," whispered he in her ear, "or his majesty
+may change his royal mind. And take care, above all things,
+that you say nothing of what was brought you on the golden
+salver."
+
+In a very short time, they had passed the great gateway
+(leaving the three-headed Cerberus, barking, and yelping, and
+growling, with threefold din, behind them), and emerged upon
+the surface of the earth. It was delightful to behold, as
+Proserpina hastened along, how the path grew verdant behind and
+on either side of her. Wherever she set her blessed foot, there
+was at once a dewy flower. The violets gushed up along the
+wayside. The grass and the grain began to sprout with tenfold
+vigor and luxuriance, to make up for the dreary months that had
+been wasted in barrenness. The starved cattle immediately set
+to work grazing, after their long fast, and ate enormously, all
+day, and got up at midnight to eat more.
+
+But I can assure you it was a busy time of year with the
+farmers, when they found the summer coming upon them with such
+a rush. Nor must I forget to say, that all the birds in the
+whole world hopped about upon the newly-blossoming trees, and
+sang together, in a prodigious ecstasy of joy.
+
+Mother Ceres had returned to her deserted home, and was sitting
+disconsolately on the doorstep, with her torch burning in her
+hand. She had been idly watching the flame for some moments
+past, when, all at once, it flickered and went out.
+
+"What does this mean?" thought she. "It was an enchanted torch,
+and should have kept burning till my child came back."
+
+Lifting her eyes, she was surprised to see a sudden verdure
+flashing over the brown and barren fields, exactly as you may
+have observed a golden hue gleaming far and wide across the
+landscape, from the just risen sun.
+
+"Does the earth disobey me?" exclaimed Mother Ceres,
+indignantly. "Does it presume to be green, when I have bidden
+it be barren, until my daughter shall be restored to my arms?"
+
+"Then open your arms, dear mother," cried a well-known voice,
+"and take your little daughter into them."
+
+And Proserpina came running, and flung herself upon her
+mother's bosom. Their mutual transport is not to be described.
+The grief of their separation had caused both of them to shed a
+great many tears; and now they shed a great many more, because
+their joy could not so well express itself in any other way.
+
+When their hearts had grown a little more quiet, Mother Ceres
+looked anxiously at Proserpina.
+
+"My child," said she, "did you taste any food while you were in
+King Pluto's palace?"
+
+"Dearest mother," exclaimed Proserpina, "I will tell you the
+whole truth. Until this very morning, not a morsel of food had
+passed my lips. But to-day, they brought me a pomegranate (a
+very dry one it was, and all shriveled up, till there was
+little left of it but seeds and skin), and having seen no fruit
+for so long a time, and being faint with hunger, I was tempted
+just to bite it. The instant I tasted it, King Pluto and
+Quicksilver came into the room. I had not swallowed a morsel;
+but--dear mother, I hope it was no harm--but six of the
+pomegranate seeds, I am afraid, remained in my mouth."
+
+"Ah, unfortunate child, and miserable me!" exclaimed Ceres.
+"For each of those six pomegranate seeds you must spend one
+month of every year in King Pluto's palace. You are but half
+restored to your mother. Only six months with me, and six with
+that good-for-nothing King of Darkness!"
+
+"Do not speak so harshly of poor King Pluto," said Prosperina,
+kissing her mother. "He has some very good qualities; and I
+really think I can bear to spend six months in his palace, if
+he will only let me spend the other six with you. He certainly
+did very wrong to carry me off; but then, as he says, it was
+but a dismal sort of life for him, to live in that great gloomy
+place, all alone; and it has made a wonderful change in his
+spirits to have a little girl to run up stairs and down. There
+is some comfort in making him so happy; and so, upon the whole,
+dearest mother, let us be thankful that he is not to keep me
+the whole year round."
+
+
+
+THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
+
+When Jason, the son of the dethroned King of Iolchos, was a
+little boy, he was sent away from his parents, and placed under
+the queerest schoolmaster that ever you heard of. This learned
+person was one of the people, or quadrupeds, called Centaurs.
+He lived in a cavern, and had the body and legs of a white
+horse, with the head and shoulders of a man. His name was
+Chiron; and, in spite of his odd appearance, he was a very
+excellent teacher, and had several scholars, who afterwards did
+him credit by making a great figure in the world. The famous
+Hercules was one, and so was Achilles, and Philoctetes
+likewise, and Aesculapius, who acquired immense repute as a
+doctor. The good Chiron taught his pupils how to play upon the
+harp, and how to cure diseases, and how to use the sword and
+shield, together with various other branches of education, in
+which the lads of those days used to be instructed, instead of
+writing and arithmetic.
+
+I have sometimes suspected that Master Chiron was not really
+very different from other people, but that, being a
+kind-hearted and merry old fellow, he was in the habit of
+making believe that he was a horse, and scrambling about the
+schoolroom on all fours, and letting the little boys ride upon
+his back. And so, when his scholars had grown up, and grown
+old, and were trotting their grandchildren on their knees, they
+told them about the sports of their school days; and these
+young folks took the idea that their grandfathers had been
+taught their letters by a Centaur, half man and half horse.
+Little children, not quite understanding what is said to them,
+often get such absurd notions into their heads, you know.
+
+Be that as it may, it has always been told for a fact (and
+always will be told, as long as the world lasts), that Chiron,
+with the head of a schoolmaster, had the body and legs of a
+horse. Just imagine the grave old gentleman clattering and
+stamping into the schoolroom on his four hoofs, perhaps
+treading on some little fellow's toes, flourishing his switch
+tail instead of a rod, and, now and then, trotting out of doors
+to eat a mouthful of grass! I wonder what the blacksmith
+charged him for a set of iron shoes?
+
+So Jason dwelt in the cave, with this four-footed Chiron, from
+the time that he was an infant, only a few months old, until he
+had grown to the full height of a man. He became a very good
+harper, I suppose, and skilful in the use of weapons, and
+tolerably acquainted with herbs and other doctor's stuff, and,
+above all, an admirable horseman; for, in teaching young people
+to ride, the good Chiron must have been without a rival among
+schoolmasters. At length, being now a tall and athletic youth,
+Jason resolved to seek his fortune in the world, without asking
+Chiron's advice, or telling him anything about the matter. This
+was very unwise, to be sure; and I hope none of you, my little
+hearers, will ever follow Jason's example.
+
+But, you are to understand, he had heard how that he himself
+was a prince royal, and how his father, King Jason, had been
+deprived of the kingdom of Iolchos by a certain Pelias, who
+would also have killed Jason, had he not been hidden in the
+Centaur's cave. And, being come to the strength of a man, Jason
+determined to set all this business to rights, and to punish
+the wicked Pelias for wronging his dear father, and to cast him
+down from the throne, and seat himself there instead.
+
+With this intention, he took a spear in each hand, and threw a
+leopard's skin over his shoulders, to keep off the rain, and
+set forth on his travels, with his long yellow ringlets waving
+in the wind. The part of his dress on which he most prided
+himself was a pair of sandals, that had been his father's. They
+were handsomely embroidered, and were tied upon his feet with
+strings of gold. But his whole attire was such as people did
+not very often see; and as he passed along, the women and
+children ran to the doors and windows, wondering whither this
+beautiful youth was journeying, with his leopard's skin and his
+golden-tied sandals, and what heroic deeds he meant to perform,
+with a spear in his right hand and another in his left.
+
+I know not how far Jason had traveled, when he came to a
+turbulent river, which rushed right across his pathway, with
+specks of white foam among its black eddies, hurrying
+tumultuously onward, and roaring angrily as it went. Though not
+a very broad river in the dry seasons of the year, it was now
+swollen by heavy rains and by the melting of the snow on the
+sides of Mount Olympus; and it thundered so loudly, and looked
+so wild and dangerous, that Jason, bold as he was, thought it
+prudent to pause upon the brink. The bed of the stream seemed
+to be strewn with sharp and rugged rocks, some of which thrust
+themselves above the water. By and by, an uprooted tree, with
+shattered branches, came drifting along the current, and got
+entangled among the rocks. Now and then, a drowned sheep, and
+once the carcass of a cow, floated past.
+
+In short, the swollen river had already done a great deal of
+mischief. It was evidently too deep for Jason to wade, and too
+boisterous for him to swim; he could see no bridge; and as for
+a boat, had there been any, the rocks would have broken it to
+pieces in an instant.
+
+"See the poor lad," said a cracked voice close to his side. "He
+must have had but a poor education, since he does not know how
+to cross a little stream like this. Or is he afraid of wetting
+his fine golden-stringed sandals? It is a pity his four-footed
+schoolmaster is not here to carry him safely across on his
+back!"
+
+Jason looked round greatly surprised, for he did not know that
+anybody was near. But beside him stood an old woman, with a
+ragged mantle over her head, leaning on a staff, the top of
+which was carved into the shape of a cuckoo. She looked very
+aged, and wrinkled, and infirm; and yet her eyes, which were as
+brown as those of an ox, were so extremely large and beautiful,
+that, when they were fixed on Jason's eyes, he could see
+nothing else but them. The old woman had a pomegranate in her
+hand, although the fruit was then quite out of season.
+
+"Whither are you going, Jason?" she now asked.
+
+She seemed to know his name, you will observe; and, indeed,
+those great brown eyes looked as if they had a knowledge of
+everything, whether past or to come. While Jason was gazing at
+her, a peacock strutted forward, and took his stand at the old
+woman's side.
+
+"I am going to Iolchos," answered the young man, "to bid the
+wicked King Pelias come down from my father's throne, and let
+me reign in his stead."
+
+"Ah, well, then," said the old woman, still with the same
+cracked voice, "if that is all your business, you need not be
+in a very great hurry. Just take me on your back, there's a
+good youth, and carry me across the river. I and my peacock
+have something to do on the other side, as well as yourself."
+
+"Good mother," replied Jason, "your business can hardly be so
+important as the pulling down a king from his throne. Besides,
+as you may see for yourself, the river is very boisterous; and
+if I should chance to stumble, it would sweep both of us away
+more easily than it has carried off yonder uprooted tree. I
+would gladly help you if I could; but I doubt whether I am
+strong enough to carry you across."
+
+"Then," said she, very scornfully, "neither are you strong
+enough to pull King Pelias off his throne. And, Jason, unless
+you will help an old woman at her need, you ought not to be a
+king. What are kings made for, save to succor the feeble and
+distressed? But do as you please. Either take me on your back,
+or with my poor old limbs I shall try my best to struggle
+across the stream."
+
+Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river,
+as if to find the safest place in its rocky bed where she might
+make the first step. But Jason, by this time, had grown ashamed
+of his reluctance to help her. He felt that he could never
+forgive himself, if this poor feeble creature should come to
+any harm in attempting to wrestle against the headlong current.
+The good Chiron, whether half horse or no, had taught him that
+the noblest use of his strength was to assist the weak; and
+also that he must treat every young woman as if she were his
+sister, and every old one like a mother. Remembering these
+maxims, the vigorous and beautiful young man knelt down, and
+requested the good dame to mount upon his back.
+
+"The passage seems to me not very safe," he remarked. "But as
+your business is so urgent, I will try to carry you across. If
+the river sweeps you away, it shall take me too."
+
+"That, no doubt, will be a great comfort to both of us," quoth
+the old woman. "But never fear. We shall get safely across."
+
+So she threw her arms around Jason's neck; and lifting her from
+the ground, he stepped boldly into the raging and foaming
+current, and began to stagger away from the shore. As for the
+peacock, it alighted on the old dame's shoulder. Jason's two
+spears, one in each hand, kept him from stumbling, and enabled
+him to feel his way among the hidden rocks; although every
+instant, he expected that his companion and himself would go
+down the stream, together with the driftwood of shattered
+trees, and the carcasses of the sheep and cow. Down came the
+cold, snowy torrent from the steep side of Olympus, raging and
+thundering as if it had a real spite against Jason, or, at all
+events, were determined to snatch off his living burden from
+his shoulders. When he was half way across, the uprooted tree
+(which I have already told you about) broke loose from among
+the rocks, and bore down upon him, with all its splintered
+branches sticking out like the hundred arms of the giant
+Briareus. It rushed past, however, without touching him. But
+the next moment his foot was caught in a crevice between two
+rocks, and stuck there so fast, that, in the effort to get
+free, he lost one of his golden-stringed sandals.
+
+At this accident Jason could not help uttering a cry of
+vexation.
+
+"What is the matter, Jason?" asked the old woman.
+
+"Matter enough," said the young man. "I have lost a sandal here
+among the rocks. And what sort of a figure shall I cut, at the
+court of King Pelias, with a golden-stringed sandal on one
+foot, and the other foot bare!"
+
+"Do not take it to heart," answered his companion cheerily.
+"You never met with better fortune than in losing that sandal.
+It satisfies me that you are the very person whom the Speaking
+Oak has been talking about."
+
+There was no time, just then, to inquire what the Speaking Oak
+had said. But the briskness of her tone encouraged the young
+man; and, besides, he had never in his life felt so vigorous
+and mighty as since taking this old woman on his back. Instead
+of being exhausted, he gathered strength as he went on; and,
+struggling up against the torrent, he at last gained the
+opposite shore, clambered up the bank, and set down the old
+dame and her peacock safely on the grass. As soon as this was
+done, however, he could not help looking rather despondently at
+his bare foot, with only a remnant of the golden string of the
+sandal clinging round his ankle.
+
+"You will get a handsomer pair of sandals by and by," said the
+old woman, with a kindly look out of her beautiful brown eyes.
+"Only let King Pelias get a glimpse of that bare foot, and you
+shall see him turn as pale as ashes, I promise you. There is
+your path. Go along, my good Jason, and my blessing go with
+you. And when you sit on your throne remember the old woman
+whom you helped over the river."
+
+With these words, she hobbled away, giving him a smile over her
+shoulder as she departed.
+
+Whether the light of her beautiful brown eyes threw a glory
+round about her, or whatever the cause might be, Jason fancied
+that there was something very noble and majestic in her figure,
+after all, and that, though her gait seemed to be a rheumatic
+hobble, yet she moved with as much grace and dignity as any
+queen on earth. Her peacock, which had now fluttered down from
+her shoulder, strutted behind her in a prodigious pomp, and
+spread out its magnificent tail on purpose for Jason to admire
+it.
+
+When the old dame and her peacock were out of sight, Jason set
+forward on his journey. After traveling a pretty long distance,
+he came to a town situated at the foot of a mountain, and not a
+great way from the shore of the sea. On the outside of the town
+there was an immense crowd of people, not only men and women,
+but children too, all in their best clothes, and evidently
+enjoying a holiday. The crowd was thickest towards the
+sea-shore; and in that direction, over the people's heads,
+Jason saw a wreath of smoke curling upward to the blue sky. He
+inquired of one of the multitude what town it was near by, and
+why so many persons were here assembled together.
+
+"This is the kingdom of Iolchos," answered the man, "and we are
+the subjects of King Pelias. Our monarch has  summoned us
+together, that we may see him sacrifice a black bull to
+Neptune, who, they say, is his majesty's father. Yonder is the
+king, where you see the smoke going up from the altar."
+
+While the man spoke he eyed Jason with great curiosity; for his
+garb was quite unlike that of the Iolchians, and it looked very
+odd to see a youth with a leopard's skin over his shoulders,
+and each hand grasping a spear. Jason perceived, too, that the
+man stared particularly at his feet, one of which, you
+remember, was bare, while the other was decorated with his
+father's golden-stringed sandal.
+
+"Look at him! only look at him!" said the man to his next
+neighbor. "Do you see? He wears but one sandal!"
+
+Upon this, first one person, and then another, began to stare
+at Jason, and everybody seemed to be greatly struck with
+something in his aspect; though they turned their eyes much
+oftener towards his feet than to any other part of his figure.
+Besides, he could hear them whispering to one another.
+
+"One sandal! One sandal!" they kept saying. "The man with one
+sandal! Here he is at last! Whence has he come? What does he
+mean to do? What will the king say to the one-sandaled man?"
+
+Poor Jason was greatly abashed, and made up his mind that the
+people of Iolchos were exceedingly ill-bred, to take such
+public notice of an accidental deficiency in his dress.
+Meanwhile, whether it were that they hustled him forward, or
+that Jason, of his own accord, thrust a passage through the
+crowd, it so happened that he soon found himself close to the
+smoking altar, where King Pelias was sacrificing the black
+bull. The murmur and hum of the multitude, in their surprise at
+the spectacle of Jason with his one bare foot, grew so loud
+that it disturbed the ceremonies; and the king, holding the
+great knife with which he was just going to cut the bull's
+throat, turned angrily about, and fixed his eyes on Jason. The
+people had now withdrawn from around him, so that the youth
+stood in an open space, near the smoking altar, front to front
+with the angry King Pelias.
+
+"Who are you?"  cried the king, with a terrible frown. "And how
+dare you make this disturbance, while I am sacrificing a black
+bull to my father Neptune?"
+
+"It is no fault of mine," answered Jason. "Your majesty must
+blame the rudeness of your subjects, who have raised all this
+tumult because one of my feet happens to be bare."
+
+When Jason said this, the king gave a quick startled glance
+down at his feet.
+
+"Ha!" muttered he, "here is the one-sandaled fellow, sure
+enough! What can I do with him?"
+
+And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if
+he were half a mind to slay Jason, instead of the black bull.
+The people round about caught up the king's words, indistinctly
+as they were uttered; and first there was a murmur amongst
+them, and then a loud shout.
+
+"The one-sandaled man has come! The prophecy must be
+fulfilled!"
+
+For you are to know, that, many years before, King Pelias had
+been told by the Speaking Oak of Dodona, that a man with one
+sandal should cast him down from his throne. On this account,
+he had given strict orders that nobody should ever come into
+his presence, unless both sandals were securely tied upon his
+feet; and he kept an officer in his palace, whose sole business
+it was to examine people's sandals, and to supply them with a
+new pair, at the expense of the royal treasury, as soon as the
+old ones began to wear out. In the whole course of the king's
+reign, he had never been thrown into such a fright and
+agitation as by the spectacle of poor Jason's bare foot. But,
+as he was naturally a bold and hard-hearted man, he soon took
+courage, and began to consider in what way he might rid himself
+of this terrible one-sandaled stranger.
+
+"My good young man," said King Pelias, taking the softest tone
+imaginable, in order to throw Jason off his guard, "you are
+excessively welcome to my kingdom. Judging by your dress, you
+must have traveled a long distance, for it is not the fashion
+to wear leopard skins in this part of the world. Pray what may
+I call your name? and where did you receive your education?"
+
+"My name is Jason," answered the young stranger. "Ever since my
+infancy, I have dwelt in the cave of Chiron the Centaur. He was
+my instructor, and taught me music, and horsemanship, and how
+to cure wounds, and likewise how to inflict wounds with my
+weapons!"
+
+"I have heard of Chiron the schoolmaster," replied King Pelias,
+"and how that there is an immense deal of learning and wisdom
+in his head, although it happens to be set on a horse's body.
+It gives me great delight to see one of his scholars at my
+court. But to test how much you have profited under so
+excellent a teacher, will you allow me to ask you a single
+question?"
+
+"I do not pretend to be very wise," said Jason. "But ask me
+what you please, and I will answer to the best of my ability."
+
+Now King Pelias meant cunningly to entrap the young man, and to
+make him say something that should be the cause of mischief and
+distraction to himself. So, with a crafty and evil smile upon
+his face, he spoke as follows:
+
+"What would you do, brave Jason," asked he, "if there were a
+man in the world, by whom, as you had reason to believe, you
+were doomed to be ruined and slain--what would you do, I say,
+if that man stood before you, and in your power?"
+
+When Jason saw the malice and wickedness which King Pelias
+could not prevent from gleaming out of his eyes, he probably
+guessed that the king had discovered what he came for, and that
+he intended to turn his own words against himself. Still he
+scorned to tell a falsehood. Like an upright and honorable
+prince as he was, he determined to speak out the real truth.
+Since the king had chosen to ask him the question, and since
+Jason had promised him an answer, there was no right way save
+to tell him precisely what would be the most prudent thing to
+do, if he had his worst enemy in his power.
+
+Therefore, after a moment's consideration, he spoke up, with a
+firm and manly voice.
+
+"I would send such a man," said he, "in quest of the Golden
+Fleece!"
+
+This enterprise, you will understand, was, of all others, the
+most difficult and dangerous in the world. In the first place
+it would be necessary to make a long voyage through unknown
+seas. There was hardly a hope, or a possibility, that any young
+man who should undertake this voyage would either succeed in
+obtaining the Golden Fleece, or would survive to return home,
+and tell of the perils he had run. The eyes of King Pelias
+sparkled with joy, therefore, when he heard Jason's reply.
+
+"Well said, wise man with the one sandal!" cried he. "Go, then,
+and at the peril of your life, bring me back the Golden
+Fleece."
+
+"I go," answered Jason, composedly. "If I fail, you need not
+fear that I will ever come back to trouble you again. But if I
+return to Iolchos with the prize, then, King Pelias, you must
+hasten down from your lofty throne, and give me your crown and
+sceptre."
+
+"That I will," said the king, with a sneer. "Meantime, I will
+keep them very safely for you."
+
+The first thing that Jason thought of doing, after he left the
+king's presence, was to go to Dodona, and inquire of the
+Talking Oak what course it was best to pursue. This wonderful
+tree stood in the center of an ancient wood. Its stately trunk
+rose up a hundred feet into the air, and threw a broad and
+dense shadow over more than an acre of ground. Standing beneath
+it, Jason looked up among the knotted branches and green
+leaves, and into the mysterious heart of the old tree, and
+spoke aloud, as if he were addressing some person who was
+hidden in the depths of the foliage.
+
+"What shall I do," said he, "in order to win the Golden
+Fleece?"
+
+At first there was a deep silence, not only within the shadow
+of the Talking Oak, but all through the solitary wood. In a
+moment or two, however, the leaves of the oak began to stir and
+rustle, as if a gentle breeze were wandering amongst them,
+although the other trees of the wood were perfectly still. The
+sound grew louder, and became like the roar of a high wind. By
+and by, Jason imagined that he could distinguish words, but
+very confusedly, because each separate leaf of the tree seemed
+to be a tongue, and the whole myriad of tongues were babbling
+at once. But the noise waxed broader and deeper, until it
+resembled a tornado sweeping through the oak, and making one
+great utterance out of the thousand and thousand of little
+murmurs which each leafy tongue had caused by its rustling. And
+now, though it still had the tone of a mighty wind roaring
+among the branches, it was also like a deep bass voice,
+speaking as distinctly as a tree could be expected to speak,
+the following words:
+
+"Go to Argus, the shipbuilder, and bid him build a galley with
+fifty oars."
+
+Then the voice melted again into the indistinct murmur of the
+rustling leaves, and died gradually away. When it was quite
+gone, Jason felt inclined to doubt whether he had actually
+heard the words, or whether his fancy had not shaped them out
+of the ordinary sound made by a breeze, while passing through
+the thick foliage of the tree.
+
+But on inquiry among the people of Iolchos, he found that there
+was really a man in the city, by the name of Argus, who was a
+very skilful builder of vessels. This showed some intelligence
+in the oak; else how should it have known that any such person
+existed? At Jason's request, Argus readily consented to build
+him a galley so big that it should require fifty strong men to
+row it; although no vessel of such a size and burden had
+heretofore been seen in the world. So the head carpenter and
+all his journeymen and apprentices began their work; and for a
+good while afterwards, there they were, busily employed, hewing
+out the timbers, and making a great clatter with their hammers;
+until the new ship, which was called the Argo, seemed to be
+quite ready for sea. And, as the Talking Oak had already given
+him such good advice, Jason thought that it would not be amiss
+to ask for a little more. He visited it again, therefore, and
+standing beside its huge, rough trunk, inquired what he should
+do next.
+
+This time, there was no such universal quivering of the leaves,
+throughout the whole tree, as there had been before. But after
+a while, Jason observed that the foliage of a great branch
+which stretched above his head had begun to rustle, as if the
+wind were stirring that one bough, while all the other boughs
+of the oak were at rest.
+
+"Cut me off!" said the branch, as soon as it could speak
+distinctly; "cut me off! cut me off! and carve me into a
+figure-head for your galley."
+
+Accordingly, Jason took the branch at its word, and lopped it
+off the tree. A carver in the neighborhood engaged to make the
+figurehead. He was a tolerably good workman, and had already
+carved several figure-heads, in what he intended for feminine
+shapes, and looking pretty much like those which we see
+nowadays stuck up under a vessel's bowsprit, with great staring
+eyes, that never wink at the dash of the spray. But (what was
+very strange) the carver found that his hand was guided by some
+unseen power, and by a skill beyond his own, and that his tools
+shaped out an image which he had never dreamed of. When the
+work was finished, it turned out to be the figure of a
+beautiful woman, with a helmet on her head, from beneath which
+the long ringlets fell down upon her shoulders. On the left arm
+was a shield, and in its center appeared a lifelike
+representation of the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. The
+right arm was extended, as if pointing onward. The face of this
+wonderful statue, though not angry or forbidding, was so grave
+and majestic, that perhaps you might call it severe; and as for
+the mouth, it seemed just ready to unclose its lips, and utter
+words of the deepest wisdom.
+
+Jason was delighted with the oaken image, and gave the carver
+no rest until it was completed, and set up where a figure-head
+has always stood, from that time to this, in the vessel's prow.
+
+"And now," cried he, as he stood gazing at the calm, majestic
+face of the statue, "I must go to the Talking Oak and inquire
+what next to do."
+
+"There is no need of that, Jason," said a voice which, though
+it was far lower, reminded him of the mighty tones of the great
+oak. "When you desire good advice, you can seek it of me."
+
+Jason had been looking straight into the face of the image when
+these words were spoken. But he could hardly believe either his
+ears or his eyes. The truth was, however, that the oaken lips
+had moved, and, to all appearance, the voice had proceeded from
+the statue's mouth. Recovering a little from his surprise,
+Jason bethought himself that the image had been carved out of
+the wood of the Talking Oak, and that, therefore, it was really
+no great wonder, but on the contrary, the most natural thing in
+the world, that it should possess the faculty of speech. It
+would have been very odd, indeed, if it had not. But certainly
+it was a great piece of good fortune that he should be able to
+carry so wise a block of wood along with him in his perilous
+voyage.
+
+"Tell me, wondrous image," exclaimed Jason, --"since you
+inherit the wisdom of the Speaking Oak of Dodona, whose
+daughter you are,--tell me, where shall I find fifty bold
+youths, who will take each of them an oar of my galley? They
+must have sturdy arms to row, and brave hearts to encounter
+perils, or we shall never win the Golden Fleece."
+
+"Go," replied the oaken image, "go, summon all the heroes of
+Greece."
+
+And, in fact, considering what a great deed was to be done,
+could any advice be wiser than this which Jason received from
+the figure-head of his vessel? He lost no time in sending
+messengers to all the cities, and making known to the whole
+people of Greece, that Prince Jason, the son of King Jason, was
+going in quest of the Fleece of Gold, and that he desired the
+help of forty-nine of the bravest and strongest young men
+alive, to row his vessel and share his dangers. And Jason
+himself would be the fiftieth.
+
+At this news, the adventurous youths, all over the country,
+began to bestir themselves. Some of them had already fought
+with giants, and slain dragons; and the younger ones, who had
+not yet met with such good fortune, thought it a shame to have
+lived so long without getting astride of a flying serpent, or
+sticking their spears into a Chimaera, or, at least, thrusting
+their right arms down a monstrous lion's throat. There was a
+fair prospect that they would meet with plenty of such
+adventures before finding the Golden Fleece. As soon as they
+could furbish up their helmets and shields, therefore, and gird
+on their trusty swords, they came thronging to Iolchos, and
+clambered on board the new galley. Shaking hands with Jason,
+they assured him that they did not care a pin for their lives,
+but would help row the vessel to the remotest edge of the
+world, and as much farther as he might think it best to go.
+
+Many of these brave fellows had been educated by Chiron, the
+four-footed pedagogue, and were therefore old schoolmates of
+Jason, and knew him to be a lad of spirit. The mighty Hercules,
+whose shoulders afterwards upheld the sky, was one of them. And
+there were Castor and Pollux, the twin brothers, who were never
+accused of being chicken-hearted, although they had been
+hatched out of an egg; and Theseus, who was so renowned for
+killing the Minotaur, and Lynceus, with his wonderfully sharp
+eyes, which could see through a millstone, or look right down
+into the depths of the earth, and discover the treasures that
+were there; and Orpheus, the very best of harpers, who sang and
+played upon his lyre so sweetly, that the brute beasts stood
+upon their hind legs, and capered merrily to the music. Yes,
+and at some of his more moving tunes, the rocks bestirred their
+moss-grown bulk out of the ground, and a grove of forest trees
+uprooted themselves, and, nodding their tops to one another,
+performed a country dance.
+
+One of the rowers was a beautiful young woman, named Atalanta.
+who had been nursed among the mountains by a bear. So light of
+foot was this fair damsel, that she could step from one foamy
+crest of a wave to the foamy crest of another, without wetting
+more than the sole of her sandal. She had grown up in a very
+wild way, and talked much about the rights of women, and loved
+hunting and war far better than her needle. But in my opinion,
+the most remarkable of this famous company were two sons of the
+North Wind (airy youngsters, and of rather a blustering
+disposition) who had wings on their shoulders, and, in case of
+a calm, could puff out their cheeks, and blow almost as fresh a
+breeze as their father. I ought not to forget the prophets and
+conjurors, of whom there were several in the crew, and who
+could foretell what would happen to-morrow or the next day, or
+a hundred years hence, but were generally quite unconscious of
+what was passing at the moment.
+
+Jason appointed Tiphys to be helmsman because he was a
+star-gazer, and knew the points of the compass. Lynceus, on
+account of his sharp sight, was stationed as a look-out in the
+prow, where he saw a whole day's sail ahead, but was rather apt
+to overlook things that lay directly under his nose. If the sea
+only happened to be deep enough, however, Lynceus could tell
+you exactly what kind of rocks or sands were at the bottom of
+it; and he often cried out to his companions, that they were
+sailing over heaps of sunken treasure, which yet he was none
+the richer for beholding. To confess the truth, few people
+believed him when he said it.
+
+Well! But when the Argonauts, as these fifty brave adventurers
+were called, had prepared everything for the voyage, an
+unforeseen difficulty threatened to end it before it was begun.
+The vessel, you must understand, was so long, and broad, and
+ponderous, that the united force of all the fifty was
+insufficient to shove her into the water. Hercules, I suppose,
+had not grown to his full strength, else he might have set her
+afloat as easily as a little boy launches his boat upon a
+puddle. But here were these fifty heroes, pushing, and
+straining, and growing red in the face, without making the Argo
+start an inch. At last, quite wearied out, they sat themselves
+down on the shore exceedingly disconsolate, and thinking that
+the vessel must be left to rot and fall in pieces, and that
+they must either swim across the sea or lose the Golden Fleece.
+
+All at once, Jason bethought himself of the galley's miraculous
+figure-head.
+
+"O, daughter of the Talking Oak," cried he, "how shall we set
+to work to get our vessel into the water?"
+
+"Seat yourselves," answered the image (for it had known what
+had ought to be done from the very first, and was only waiting
+for the question to be put),--" seat yourselves, and handle
+your oars, and let Orpheus play upon his harp."
+
+Immediately the fifty heroes got on board, and seizing their
+oars, held them perpendicularly in the air, while Orpheus (who
+liked such a task far better than rowing) swept his fingers
+across the harp. At the first ringing note of the music, they
+felt the vessel stir. Orpheus thrummed away briskly, and the
+galley slid at once into the sea, dipping her prow so deeply
+that the figure-head drank the wave with its marvelous lips,
+and rising again as buoyant as a swan. The rowers plied their
+fifty oars; the white foam boiled up before the prow; the water
+gurgled and bubbled in their wake; while Orpheus continued to
+play so lively a strain of music, that the vessel seemed to
+dance over the billows by way of keeping time to it. Thus
+triumphantly did the Argo sail out of the harbor, amidst the
+huzzas and good wishes of everybody except the wicked old
+Pelias, who stood on a promontory, scowling at her, and wishing
+that he could blow out of his lungs the tempest of wrath that
+was in his heart, and so sink the galley with all on board.
+When they had sailed above fifty miles over the sea, Lynceus
+happened to cast his sharp eyes behind, and said that there was
+this bad-hearted king, still perched upon the promontory, and
+scowling so gloomily that it looked like a black thunder-cloud
+in that quarter of the horizon.
+
+In order to make the time pass away more pleasantly during the
+voyage, the heroes talked about the Golden Fleece. It
+originally belonged, it appears, to a Boeotian ram, who had
+taken on his back two children, when in danger of their lives,
+and fled with them over land and sea as far as Colchis. One of
+the children, whose name was Helle, fell into the sea and was
+drowned. But the other (a little boy, named Phrixus) was
+brought safe ashore by the faithful ram, who, however, was so
+exhausted that he immediately lay down and died. In memory of
+this good deed, and as a token of his true heart, the fleece of
+the poor dead ram was miraculously changed to gold, and became
+one of the most beautiful objects ever seen on earth. It was
+hung upon a tree in a sacred grove, where it had now been kept
+I know not how many years, and was the envy of mighty kings,
+who had nothing so magnificent in any of their palaces.
+
+If I were to tell you all the adventures of the Argonauts, it
+would take me till nightfall, and perhaps a great deal longer.
+There was no lack of wonderful events, as you may judge from
+what you have already heard. At a certain island, they were
+hospitably received by King Cyzicus, its sovereign, who made a
+feast for them, and treated them like brothers. But the
+Argonauts saw that this good king looked downcast and very much
+troubled, and they therefore inquired of him what was the
+matter. King Cyzicus hereupon informed them that he and his
+subjects were greatly abused and incommoded by the inhabitants
+of a neighboring mountain, who made war upon them, and killed
+many people, and ravaged the country. And while they were
+talking about it, Cyzicus pointed to the mountain, and asked
+Jason and his companions what they saw there.
+
+"I see some very tall objects," answered Jason; "but they are
+at such a distance that I cannot distinctly make out what they
+are. To tell your majesty the truth, they look so very
+strangely that I am inclined to think them clouds, which have
+chanced to take something like human shapes."
+
+"I see them very plainly," remarked Lynceus, whose eyes, you
+know, were as far-sighted as a telescope. "They are a band of
+enormous giants, all of whom have six arms apiece, and a club,
+a sword, or some other weapon in each of their hands."
+
+"You have excellent eyes," said King Cyzicus. "Yes; they are
+six-armed giants, as you say, and these are the enemies whom I
+and my subjects have to contend with."
+
+The next day, when the Argonauts were about setting sail, down
+came these terrible giants, stepping a hundred yards at a
+stride, brandishing their six arms apiece, and looking
+formidable, so far aloft in the air. Each of these monsters was
+able to carry on a whole war by himself, for with one arm he
+could fling immense stones, and wield a club with another, and
+a sword with a third, while the fourth was poking a long spear
+at the enemy, and the fifth and sixth were shooting him with a
+bow and arrow. But, luckily, though the giants were so huge,
+and had so many arms, they had each but one heart, and that no
+bigger nor braver than the heart of an ordinary man. Besides,
+if they had been like the hundred-armed Briareus, the brave
+Argonauts would have given them their hands full of fight.
+Jason and his friends went boldly to meet them, slew a great
+many, and made the rest take to their heels, so that if the
+giants had had six legs apiece instead of six arms, it would
+have served them better to run away with.
+
+Another strange adventure happened when the voyagers came to
+Thrace, where they found a poor blind king, named Phineus,
+deserted by his subjects, and living in a very sorrowful way,
+all by himself: On Jason's inquiring whether they could do him
+any service, the king answered that he was terribly tormented
+by three great winged creatures, called Harpies, which had the
+faces of women, and the wings, bodies, and claws of vultures.
+These ugly wretches were in the habit of snatching away his
+dinner, and allowed him no peace of his life. Upon hearing
+this, the Argonauts spread a plentiful feast on the sea-shore,
+well knowing, from what the blind king said of their
+greediness, that the Harpies would snuff up the scent of the
+victuals, and quickly come to steal them away. And so it turned
+out; for, hardly was the table set, before the three hideous
+vulture women came flapping their wings, seized the food in
+their talons, and flew off as fast as they could. But the two
+sons of the North Wind drew their swords, spread their pinions,
+and set off through the air in pursuit of the thieves, whom
+they at last overtook among some islands, after a chase of
+hundreds of miles. The two winged youths blustered terribly at
+the Harpies (for they had the rough temper of their father),
+and so frightened them with their drawn swords, that they
+solemnly promised never to trouble King Phineus again.
+
+Then the Argonauts sailed onward and met with many other
+marvelous incidents, any one of which would make a story by
+itself. At one time they landed on an island, and were reposing
+on the grass, when they suddenly found themselves assailed by
+what seemed a shower of steel-headed arrows. Some of them stuck
+in the ground, while others hit against their shields, and
+several penetrated their flesh. The fifty heroes started up,
+and looked about them for the hidden enemy, but could find
+none, nor see any spot, on the whole island, where even a
+single archer could lie concealed. Still, however, the
+steel-headed arrows came whizzing among them; and, at last,
+happening to look upward, they beheld a large flock of birds,
+hovering and wheeling aloft, and shooting their feathers down
+upon the Argonauts. These feathers were the steel-headed arrows
+that had so tormented them. There was no possibility of making
+any resistance; and the fifty heroic Argonauts might all have
+been killed or wounded by a flock of troublesome birds, without
+ever setting eyes on the Golden Fleece, if Jason had not
+thought of asking the advice of the oaken image.
+
+So he ran to the galley as fast as his legs would carry him.
+
+"O, daughter of the Speaking Oak," cried he, all out of breath,
+"we need your wisdom more than ever before! We are in great
+peril from a flock of birds, who are shooting us with their
+steel-pointed feathers. What can we do to drive them away?"
+
+"Make a clatter on your shields," said the image.
+
+On receiving this excellent counsel, Jason hurried back to his
+companions (who were far more dismayed than when they fought
+with the six-armed giants), and bade them strike with their
+swords upon their brazen shields. Forthwith the fifty heroes
+set heartily to work, banging with might and main, and raised
+such a terrible clatter, that the birds made what haste they
+could to get away; and though they had shot half the feathers
+out of their wings, they were soon seen skimming among the
+clouds, a long distance off, and looking like a flock of wild
+geese. Orpheus celebrated this victory by playing a triumphant
+anthem on his harp, and sang so melodiously that Jason begged
+him to desist, lest, as the steel-feathered birds had been
+driven away by an ugly sound, they might be enticed back again
+by a sweet one.
+
+While the Argonauts remained on this island, they saw a small
+vessel approaching the shore, in which were two young men of
+princely demeanor, and exceedingly handsome, as young princes
+generally were, in those days. Now, who do you imagine these
+two voyagers turned out to be? Why, if you will believe me,
+they were the sons of that very Phrixus, who, in his childhood,
+had been carried to Colchis on the back of the golden-fleeced
+ram. Since that time, Phrixus had married the king's daughter;
+and the two young princes had been born and brought up at
+Colchis, and had spent their play-days in the outskirts of the
+grove, in the center of which the Golden Fleece was hanging
+upon a tree. They were now on their way to Greece, in hopes of
+getting back a kingdom that had been wrongfully taken from
+their father.
+
+When the princes understood whither the Argonauts were going,
+they offered to turn back, and guide them to Colchis. At the
+same time, however, they spoke as if it were very doubtful
+whether Jason would succeed in getting the Golden Fleece.
+According to their account, the tree on which it hung was
+guarded by a terrible dragon, who never failed to devour, at
+one mouthful, every person who might venture within his reach.
+
+"There are other difficulties in the way," continued the young
+princes. "But is not this enough? Ah, brave Jason, turn back
+before it is too late. It would grieve us to the heart, if you
+and your nine and forty brave companions should be eaten up, at
+fifty mouthfuls, by this execrable dragon."
+
+"My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder
+that you think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from
+infancy in the fear of this monster, and therefore still regard
+him with the awe that children feel for the bugbears and
+hobgoblins which their nurses have talked to them about. But,
+in my view of the matter, the dragon is merely a pretty large
+serpent, who is not half so likely to snap me up at one
+mouthful as I am to cut off his ugly head, and strip the skin
+from his body. At all events, turn back who may, I will never
+see Greece again, unless I carry with me the Golden Fleece."
+
+"We will none of us turn back!" cried his nine and forty brave
+comrades. "Let us get on board the galley this instant; and if
+the dragon is to make a breakfast of us, much good may it do
+him."
+
+And Orpheus (whose custom it was to set everything to music)
+began to harp and sing most gloriously, and made every mother's
+son of them feel as if nothing in this world were so delectable
+as to fight dragons, and nothing so truly honorable as to be
+eaten up at one mouthful, in case of the worst.
+
+After this (being now under the guidance of the two princes,
+who were well acquainted with the way), they quickly sailed to
+Colchis. When the king of the country, whose name was Aetes,
+heard of their arrival, he instantly summoned Jason to court.
+The king was a stern and cruel looking potentate; and though he
+put on as polite and hospitable an expression as he could,
+Jason did not like his face a whit better than that of the
+wicked King Pelias, who dethroned his father. "You are welcome,
+brave Jason," said King Aetes. "Pray, are you on a pleasure
+voyage?--Or do you meditate the discovery of unknown
+islands?--or what other cause has procured me the happiness of
+seeing you at my court?"
+
+"Great sir," replied Jason, with an obeisance--for Chiron had
+taught him how to behave with propriety, whether to kings or
+beggars--"I have come hither with a purpose which I now beg
+your majesty's permission to execute. King Pelias, who sits on
+my father's throne (to which he has no more right than to the
+one on which your excellent majesty is now seated), has engaged
+to come down from it, and to give me his crown and sceptre,
+provided I bring him the Golden Fleece. This, as your majesty
+is aware, is now hanging on a tree here at Colchis; and I
+humbly solicit your gracious leave to take it away." In spite
+of himself, the king's face twisted itself into an angry frown;
+for, above all things else in the world, he prized the Golden
+Fleece, and was even suspected of having done a very wicked
+act, in order to get it into his own possession. It put him
+into the worst possible humor, therefore, to hear that the
+gallant Prince Jason, and forty-nine of the bravest young
+warriors of Greece, had come to Colchis with the sole purpose
+of taking away his chief treasure.
+
+"Do you know," asked King Aetes, eyeing Jason very sternly,
+"what are the conditions which you must fulfill before getting
+possession of the Golden Fleece?"
+
+"I have heard," rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath
+the tree on which the prize hangs, and that whoever approaches
+him runs the risk of being devoured at a mouthful."
+
+"True," said the king, with a smile that did not look
+particularly good-natured. "Very true, young man. But there are
+other things as hard, or perhaps a little harder, to be done
+before you can even have the privilege of being devoured by the
+dragon. For example, you must first tame my two brazen-footed
+and brazen-lunged bulls, which Vulcan, the wonderful
+blacksmith, made for me. There is a furnace in each of their
+stomachs; and they breathe such hot fire out of their mouths
+and nostrils, that nobody has hitherto gone nigh them without
+being instantly burned to a small, black cinder. What do you
+think of this, my brave Jason?"
+
+"I must encounter the peril," answered Jason, composedly,
+"since it stands in the way of my purpose."
+
+"After taming the fiery bulls," continued King Aetes, who was
+determined to scare Jason if possible, "you must yoke them to a
+plow, and must plow the sacred earth in the Grove of Mars, and
+sow some of the same dragon's teeth from which Cadmus raised a
+crop of armed men. They are an unruly set of reprobates, those
+sons of the dragon's teeth; and unless you treat them suitably,
+they will fall upon you sword in hand. You and your nine and
+forty Argonauts, my bold Jason, are hardly numerous or strong
+enough to fight with such a host as will spring up."
+
+"My master Chiron," replied Jason, "taught me, long ago, the
+story of Cadmus. Perhaps I can manage the quarrelsome sons of
+the dragon's teeth as well as Cadmus did."
+
+"I wish the dragon had him," muttered King Aetes to himself,
+"and the four-footed pedant, his schoolmaster, into the
+bargain. Why, what a foolhardy, self-conceited coxcomb he is!
+We'll see what my fire-breathing bulls will do for him. Well,
+Prince Jason," he continued, aloud, and as complaisantly as he
+could, "make yourself comfortable for to-day, and to-morrow
+morning, since you insist upon it, you shall try your skill at
+the plow."
+
+While the king talked with Jason, a beautiful young woman was
+standing behind the throne. She fixed her eyes earnestly upon
+the youthful stranger, and listened attentively to every word
+that was spoken; and when Jason withdrew from the king's
+presence, this young woman followed him out of the room.
+
+"I am the king's daughter," she said to him, "and my name is
+Medea. I know a great deal of which other young princesses are
+ignorant, and can do many things which they would be afraid so
+much as to dream of. If you will trust to me, I can instruct
+you how to tame the fiery bulls, and sow the dragon's teeth,
+and get the Golden Fleece."
+
+"Indeed, beautiful princess," answered Jason, "if you will do
+me this service, I promise to be grateful to you my whole life
+long."' Gazing at Medea, he beheld a wonderful intelligence in
+her face. She was one of those persons whose eyes are full of
+mystery; so that, while looking into them, you seem to see a
+very great way, as into a deep well, yet can never be certain
+whether you see into the farthest depths, or whether there be
+not something else hidden at the bottom. If Jason had been
+capable of fearing anything, he would have been afraid of
+making this young princess his enemy; for, beautiful as she now
+looked, she might, the very next instant, become as terrible as
+the dragon that kept watch over the Golden Fleece.
+
+"Princess," he exclaimed, "you seem indeed very wise and very
+powerful. But how can you help me to do the things of which you
+speak? Are you an enchantress?"
+
+"Yes, Prince Jason," answered Medea, with a smile, "you have
+hit upon the truth. I am an enchantress. Circe, my father's
+sister, taught me to be one, and I could tell you, if I
+pleased, who was the old woman with the peacock, the
+pomegranate, and the cuckoo staff, whom you carried over the
+river; and, likewise, who it is that speaks through the lips of
+the oaken image, that stands in the prow of your galley. I am
+acquainted with some of your secrets, you perceive. It is well
+for you that I am favorably inclined; for, otherwise, you would
+hardly escape being snapped up by the dragon."
+
+"I should not so much care for the dragon," replied Jason, "if
+I only knew how to manage the brazen-footed and fiery-lunged
+bulls."
+
+"If you are as brave as I think you, and as you have need to
+be," said Medea, "your own bold heart will teach you that there
+is but one way of dealing with a mad bull. What it is I leave
+you to find out in the moment of peril. As for the fiery breath
+of these animals, I have a charmed ointment here, which will
+prevent you from being burned up, and cure you if you chance to
+be a little scorched."
+
+So she put a golden box into his hand, and directed him how to
+apply the perfumed unguent which it contained, and where to
+meet her at midnight.
+
+"Only be brave," added she, "and before daybreak the brazen
+bulls shall be tamed."
+
+The young man assured her that his heart would not fail him. He
+then rejoined his comrades, and told them what had passed
+between the princess and himself, and warned them to be in
+readiness in case there might be need of their help. At the
+appointed hour he met the beautiful Medea on the marble steps
+of the king's palace. She gave him a basket, in which were the
+dragon's teeth, just as they had been pulled out of the
+monster's jaws by Cadmus, long ago. Medea then led Jason down
+the palace steps, and through the silent streets of the city,
+and into the royal pasture ground, where the two brazen-footed
+bulls were kept. It was a starry night, with a bright gleam
+along the eastern edge of the sky, where the moon was soon
+going to show herself. After entering the pasture, the princess
+paused and looked around.
+
+"There they are," said she, "reposing them. selves and chewing
+their fiery cuds in that farthest corner of the field. It will
+be excellent sport, I assure you, when they catch a glimpse of
+your figure. My father and all his court delight in nothing so
+much as to see a stranger trying to yoke them, in order to come
+at the Golden Fleece. It makes a holiday in Colchis whenever
+such a thing happens. For my part, I enjoy it immensely. You
+cannot imagine in what a mere twinkling of an eye their hot
+breath shrivels a young man into a black cinder."
+
+"Are you sure, beautiful Medea," asked Jason, "quite sure, that
+the unguent in the gold box will prove a remedy against those
+terrible burns?"
+
+"If you doubt, if you are in the least afraid," said the
+princess, looking him in the face by the dim starlight, "you
+had better never have been born than to go a step nigher to the
+bulls."
+
+But Jason had set his heart steadfastly on getting the Golden
+Fleece; and I positively doubt whether he would have gone back
+without it, even had he been certain of finding himself turned
+into a red-hot cinder, or a handful of white ashes, the instant
+he made a step farther. He therefore let go Medea's hand, and
+walked boldly forward in the direction whither she had pointed.
+At some distance before him he perceived four streams of fiery
+vapor, regularly appearing and again vanishing, after dimly
+lighting up the surrounding obscurity. These, you will
+understand, were caused by the breath of the brazen bulls,
+which was quietly stealing out of their four nostrils, as they
+lay chewing their cuds.
+
+At the first two or three steps which Jason made, the four
+fiery streams appeared to gush out somewhat more plentifully;
+for the two brazen bulls had heard his foot tramp, and were
+lifting up their hot noses to snuff the air. He went a little
+farther, and by the way in which the red vapor now spouted
+forth, he judged that the creatures had got upon their feet.
+Now he could see glowing sparks, and vivid jets of flame. At
+the next step, each of the bulls made the pasture echo with a
+terrible roar, while the burning breath, which they thus
+belched forth, lit up the whole field with a momentary flash.
+One other stride did bold Jason make; and, suddenly as a streak
+of lightning, on came these fiery animals, roaring like
+thunder, and sending out sheets of white flame, which so
+kindled up the scene that the young man could discern every
+object more distinctly than by daylight. Most distinctly of all
+he saw the two horrible creatures galloping right down upon
+him, their brazen hoofs rattling and ringing over the ground,
+and their tails sticking up stiffly into the air, as has always
+been the fashion with angry bulls. Their breath scorched the
+herbage before them. So intensely hot it was, indeed, that it
+caught a dry tree under which Jason was now standing, and set
+it all in a light blaze. But as for Jason himself (thanks to
+Medea's enchanted ointment), the white flame curled around his
+body, without injuring him a jot more than if he had been made
+of asbestos.
+
+Greatly encouraged at finding himself not yet turned into a
+cinder, the young man awaited the attack of the bulls. Just as
+the brazen brutes fancied themselves sure of tossing him into
+the air, he caught one of them by the horn, and the other by
+his screwed-up tail, and held them in a gripe like that of an
+iron vice, one with his right hand, the other with his left.
+Well, he must have been wonderfully strong in his arms, to be
+sure. But the secret of the matter was, that the brazen bulls
+were enchanted creatures, and that Jason had broken the spell
+of their fiery fierceness by his bold way of handling them.
+And, ever since that time, it has been the favorite method of
+brave men, when danger assails them, to do what they call "
+taking the bull by the horns"; and to gripe him by the tail is
+pretty much the same thing--that is, to throw aside fear, and
+overcome the peril by despising it. It was now easy to yoke the
+bulls, and to harness them to the plow, which had lain rusting
+on the ground for a great many years gone by; so long was it
+before anybody could be found capable of plowing that piece of
+land. Jason, I suppose, had been taught how to draw a furrow by
+the good old Chiron, who, perhaps, used to allow himself to be
+harnessed to the plow. At any rate, our hero succeeded
+perfectly well in breaking up the greensward; and, by the time
+that the moon was a quarter of her journey up the sky, the
+plowed field lay before him, a large tract of black earth,
+ready to be sown with the dragon's teeth. So Jason scattered
+them broadcast, and harrowed them into the soil with a
+brush-harrow, and took his stand on the edge of the field,
+anxious to see what would happen next.
+
+"Must we wait long for harvest time?" he inquired of Medea, who
+was now standing by his side.
+
+"Whether sooner or later, it will be sure to come," answered
+the princess. "A crop of armed men never fails to spring up,
+when the dragon's teeth have been sown."
+
+The moon was now high aloft in the heavens, and threw its
+bright beams over the plowed field, where as yet there was
+nothing to be seen. Any farmer, on viewing it, would have said
+that Jason must wait weeks before the green blades would peep
+from among the clods, and whole months before the yellow grain
+would be ripened for the sickle. But by and by, all over the
+field, there was something that glistened in the moonbeams,
+like sparkling drops of dew. These bright objects sprouted
+higher, and proved to be the steel heads of spears. Then there
+was a dazzling gleam from a vast number of polished brass
+helmets, beneath which, as they grew farther out of the soil,
+appeared the dark and bearded visages of warriors, struggling
+to free themselves from the imprisoning earth. The first look
+that they gave at the upper world was a glare of wrath and
+defiance. Next were seen their bright breastplates; in every
+right hand there was a sword or a spear, and on each left arm a
+shield; and when this strange crop of warriors had but half
+grown out of the earth, they struggled--such was their
+impatience of restraint--and, as it were, tore themselves up by
+the roots. Wherever a dragon's tooth had fallen, there stood a
+man armed for battle. They made a clangor with their swords
+against their shields, and eyed one another fiercely; for they
+had come into this beautiful world, and into the peaceful
+moonlight, full of rage and stormy passions, and ready to take
+the life of every human brother, in recompense of the boon of
+their own existence.
+
+There have been many other armies in the world that seemed to
+possess the same fierce nature with the one which had now
+sprouted from the dragon's teeth; but these, in the moonlit
+field, were the more excusable, because they never had women
+for their mothers. And how it would have rejoiced any great
+captain, who was bent on conquering the world, like Alexander
+or Napoleon, to raise a crop of armed soldiers as easily as
+Jason did! For a while, the warriors stood flourishing their
+weapons, clashing their swords against their shields, and
+boiling over with the red-hot thirst for battle. Then they
+began to shout--"Show us the enemy! Lead us to the charge!
+Death or victory!" "Come on, brave comrades! Conquer or die!"
+and a hundred other outcries, such as men always bellow forth
+on a battle field, and which these dragon people seemed to have
+at their tongues' ends. At last, the front rank caught sight of
+Jason, who, beholding the flash of so many weapons in the
+moonlight, had thought it best to draw his sword. In a moment
+all the sons of the dragon's teeth appeared to take Jason for
+an enemy; and crying with one voice, "Guard the Golden Fleece!"
+they ran at him with uplifted swords and protruded spears.
+Jason knew that it would be impossible to withstand this
+blood-thirsty battalion with his single arm, but determined,
+since there was nothing better to be done, to die as valiantly
+as if he himself had sprung from a dragon's tooth.
+
+Medea, however, bade him snatch up a stone from the ground.
+
+"Throw it among them quickly!" cried she. "It is the only way
+to save yourself."
+
+The armed men were now so nigh that Jason could discern the
+fire flashing out of their enraged eyes, when he let fly the
+stone, and saw it strike the helmet of a tall warrior, who was
+rushing upon him with his blade aloft. The stone glanced from
+this man's helmet to the shield of his nearest comrade, and
+thence flew right into the angry face of another, hitting him
+smartly between the eyes. Each of the three who had been struck
+by the stone took it for granted that his next neighbor had
+given him a blow; and instead of running any farther towards
+Jason, they began to fight among themselves. The confusion
+spread through the host, so that it seemed scarcely a moment
+before they were all hacking, hewing, and stabbing at one
+another, lopping off arms, heads, and legs and doing such
+memorable deeds that Jason was filled with immense admiration;
+although, at the same time, he could not help laughing to
+behold these mighty men punishing each other for an offense
+which he himself had committed. In an incredibly short space of
+time (almost as short, indeed, as it had taken them to grow
+up), all but one of the heroes of the dragon's teeth were
+stretched lifeless on the field. The last survivor, the bravest
+and strongest of the whole, had just force enough to wave his
+crimson sword over his head and give a shout of exultation,
+crying, "Victory! Victory! Immortal fame!" when he himself fell
+down, and lay quietly among his slain brethren.
+
+And there was the end of the army that had sprouted from the
+dragon's teeth. That fierce and feverish fight was the only
+enjoyment which they had tasted on this beautiful earth.
+
+"Let them sleep in the bed of honor," said the Princess Medea,
+with a sly smile at Jason. "The world will always have
+simpletons enough, just like them, fighting and dying for they
+know not what, and fancying that posterity will take the
+trouble to put laurel wreaths on their rusty and battered
+helmets. Could you help smiling, Prince Jason, to see the
+self-conceit of that last fellow, just as he tumbled down?"
+
+"It made me very sad," answered Jason, gravely. "And, to tell
+you the truth, princess, the Golden Fleece does not appear so
+well worth the winning, after what I have here beheld!"
+
+"You will think differently in the morning," said Medea. "True,
+the Golden Fleece may not be so valuable as you have thought
+it; but then there is nothing better in the world; and one must
+needs have an object, you know. Come! Your night's work has
+been well performed; and to-morrow you can inform King Aetes
+that the first part of your allotted task is fulfilled."
+
+Agreeably to Medea's advice, Jason went betimes in the morning
+to the palace of King Aetes. Entering the presence chamber, he
+stood at the foot of the throne, and made a low obeisance.
+
+"Your eyes look heavy, Prince Jason," observed the king; "you
+appear to have spent a sleepless night. I hope you have been
+considering the matter a little more wisely, and have concluded
+not to get yourself scorched to a cinder, in attempting to tame
+my brazen-lunged bulls."
+
+"That is already accomplished, may it please your majesty,"
+replied Jason. "The bulls have been tamed and yoked; the field
+has been plowed; the dragon's teeth have been sown broadcast,
+and harrowed into the soil; the crop of armed warriors have
+sprung up, and they have slain one another, to the last man.
+And now I solicit your majesty's permission to encounter the
+dragon, that I may take down the Golden Fleece from the tree,
+and depart, with my nine and forty comrades."
+
+King Aetes scowled, and looked very angry and excessively
+disturbed; for he knew that, in accordance with his kingly
+promise, he ought now to permit Jason to win the Fleece, if his
+courage and skill should enable him to do so. But, since the
+young man had met with such good luck in the matter of the
+brazen bulls and the dragon's teeth, the king feared that he
+would be equally successful in slaying the dragon. And
+therefore, though he would gladly have seen Jason snapped up at
+a mouthful, he was resolved (and it was a very wrong thing of
+this wicked potentate) not to run any further risk of losing
+his beloved Fleece.
+
+"You never would have succeeded in this business, young man,"
+said he, "if my undutiful daughter Medea had not helped you
+with her enchantments. Had you acted fairly, you would have
+been, at this instant, a black cinder, or a handful of white
+ashes. I forbid you, on pain of death, to make any more
+attempts to get the Golden Fleece. To speak my mind plainly,
+you shall never set eyes on so much as one of its glistening
+locks."
+
+Jason left the king's presence in great sorrow and anger. He
+could think of nothing better to be done than to summon
+together his forty-nine brave Argonauts, march at once to the
+Grove of Mars, slay the dragon, take possession of the Golden
+Fleece, get on board the Argo, and spread all sail for Iolchos.
+The success of this scheme depended, it is true, on the
+doubtful point whether all the fifty heroes might not be
+snapped up, at so many mouthfuls, by the dragon. But, as Jason
+was hastening down the palace steps, the Princess Medea called
+after him, and beckoned him to return. Her black eyes shone
+upon him with such a keen intelligence, that he felt as if
+there were a serpent peeping out of them; and, although she had
+done him so much service only the night before, he was by no
+means very certain that she would not do him an equally great
+mischief before sunset. These enchantresses, you must know, are
+never to be depended upon.
+
+"What says King Aetes, my royal and upright father?" inquired
+Medea, slightly smiling. "Will he give you the Golden Fleece,
+without any further risk or trouble?"
+
+"On the contrary," answered Jason, "he is very angry with me
+for taming the brazen bulls and sowing the dragon's teeth. And
+he forbids me to make any more attempts, and positively refuses
+to give up the Golden Fleece, whether I slay the dragon or no."
+
+"Yes, Jason," said the princess, "and I can tell you more.
+Unless you set sail from Colchis before to-morrow's sunrise,
+the king means to burn your fifty-oared galley, and put
+yourself and your forty-nine brave comrades to the sword. But
+be of good courage. The Golden Fleece you shall have, if it
+lies within the power of my enchantments to get it for you.
+Wait for me here an hour before midnight."
+
+At the appointed hour you might again have seen Prince Jason
+and the Princess Medea, side by side, stealing through the
+streets of Colchis, on their way to the sacred grove, in the
+center of which the Golden Fleece was suspended to a tree.
+While they were crossing the pasture ground, the brazen bulls
+came towards Jason, lowing, nodding their heads, and thrusting
+forth their snouts, which, as other cattle do, they loved to
+have rubbed and caressed by a friendly hand. Their fierce
+nature was thoroughly tamed; and, with their fierceness, the
+two furnaces in their stomachs had likewise been extinguished,
+insomuch that they probably enjoyed far more comfort in grazing
+and chewing their cuds than ever before. Indeed, it had
+heretofore been a great inconvenience to these poor animals,
+that, whenever they wished to eat a mouthful of grass, the fire
+out of their nostrils had shriveled it up, before they could
+manage to crop it. How they contrived to keep themselves alive
+is more than I can imagine. But now, instead of emitting jets
+of flame and streams of sulphurous vapor, they breathed the
+very sweetest of cow breath.
+
+After kindly patting the bulls, Jason followed Medea's guidance
+into the Grove of Mars, where the great oak trees, that had
+been growing for centuries, threw so thick a shade that the
+moonbeams struggled vainly to find their way through it. Only
+here and there a glimmer fell upon the leaf-strewn earth, or
+now and then a breeze stirred the boughs aside, and gave Jason
+a glimpse of the sky, lest, in that deep obscurity, he might
+forget that there was one, overhead. At length, when they had
+gone farther and farther into the heart of the duskiness, Medea
+squeezed Jason's hand.
+
+"Look yonder," she whispered. "Do you see it?"
+
+Gleaming among the venerable oaks, there was a radiance, not
+like the moonbeams, but rather resembling the golden glory of
+the setting sun. It proceeded from an object, which appeared to
+be suspended at about a man's height from the ground, a little
+farther within the wood.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jason.
+
+"Have you come so far to seek it," exclaimed Medea, "and do you
+not recognize the meed of all your toils and perils, when it
+glitters before your eyes? It is the Golden Fleece."
+
+Jason went onward a few steps farther, and then stopped to
+gaze. O, how beautiful it looked, shining with a marvelous
+light of its own, that inestimable prize which so many heroes
+had longed to behold, but had perished in the quest of it,
+either by the perils of their voyage, or by the fiery breath of
+the brazen- lunged bulls.
+
+"How gloriously it shines!" cried Jason, in a rapture. "It has
+surely been dipped in the richest gold of sunset. Let me hasten
+onward, and take it to my bosom."
+
+"Stay," said Medea, holding him back. "Have you forgotten what
+guards it?"
+
+To say the truth, in the joy of beholding the object of his
+desires, the terrible dragon had quite slipped out of Jason's
+memory. Soon, however, something came to pass, that reminded
+him what perils were still to be encountered. An antelope, that
+probably mistook the yellow radiance for sunrise, came bounding
+fleetly through the grove. He was rushing straight towards the
+Golden Fleece, when suddenly there was a frightful hiss, and
+the immense head and half the scaly body of the dragon was
+thrust forth (for he was twisted round the trunk of the tree on
+which the Fleece hung), and seizing the poor antelope,
+swallowed him with one snap of his jaws.
+
+After this feat, the dragon seemed sensible that some other
+living creature was within reach, on which he felt inclined to
+finish his meal. In various directions he kept poking his ugly
+snout among the trees, stretching out his neck a terrible long
+way, now here, now there, and now close to the spot where Jason
+and the princess were hiding behind an oak. Upon my word, as
+the head came waving and undulating through the air, and
+reaching almost within arm's length of Prince Jason, it was a
+very hideous and uncomfortable sight. The gape of his enormous
+jaws was nearly as wide as the gateway of the king's palace.
+
+"Well, Jason," whispered Medea (for she was ill natured, as all
+enchantresses are, and wanted to make the bold youth tremble),
+"what do you think now of your prospect of winning the Golden
+Fleece?"
+
+Jason answered only by drawing his sword, and making a step
+forward.
+
+"Stay, foolish youth," said Medea, grasping his arm. "Do not
+you see you are lost, without me as your good angel? In this
+gold box I have a magic potion, which will do the dragon's
+business far more effectually than your sword."
+
+The dragon had probably heard the voices; for swift as
+lightning, his black head and forked tongue came hissing among
+the trees again, darting full forty feet at a stretch. As it
+approached, Medea tossed the contents of the gold box right
+down the monster's wide-open throat. Immediately, with an
+outrageous hiss and a tremendous wriggle--flinging his tail up
+to the tip-top of the tallest tree, and shattering all its
+branches as it crashed heavily down again--the dragon fell at
+full length upon the ground, and lay quite motionless.
+
+"It is only a sleeping potion," said the enchantress to Prince
+Jason. "One always finds a use for these mischievous creatures,
+sooner or later; so I did not wish to kill him outright. Quick!
+Snatch the prize, and let us begone. You have won the Golden
+Fleece."
+
+Jason caught the fleece from the tree, and hurried through the
+grove, the deep shadows of which were illuminated as he passed
+by the golden glory of the precious object that he bore along.
+A little way before him, he beheld the old woman whom he had
+helped over the stream, with her peacock beside her. She
+clapped her hands for joy, and beckoning him to make haste,
+disappeared among the duskiness of the trees. Espying the two
+winged sons of the North Wind (who were disporting themselves
+in the moonlight, a few hundred feet aloft), Jason bade them
+tell the rest of the Argonauts to embark as speedily as
+possible. But Lynceus, with his sharp eyes, had already caught
+a glimpse of him, bringing the Golden Fleece, although several
+stone walls, a hill, and the black shadows of the Grove of
+Mars, intervened between. By his advice, the heroes had seated
+themselves on the benches of the galley, with their oars held
+perpendicularly, ready to let fall into the water.
+
+As Jason drew near, he heard the Talking Image calling to him
+with more than ordinary eagerness, in its grave, sweet voice:
+
+"Make haste, Prince Jason! For your life, make haste!"
+
+With one bound, he leaped aboard. At sight of the glorious
+radiance of the Golden Fleece, the nine and forty heroes gave a
+mighty shout, and Orpheus, striking his harp, sang a song of
+triumph, to the cadence of which the galley flew over the
+water, homeward bound, as if careering along with wings!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Tanglewood Tales, by Hawthorne
+
diff --git a/old/tnglw10.zip b/old/tnglw10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca827d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/tnglw10.zip