The Complete Poetical Works, vol 3 | Page 3

aloud.
13.
He drove them wandering o'er the sandy way, _95 But, being ever
mindful of his craft,
Backward and forward drove he them astray,

So that the tracks which seemed before, were aft;
His sandals then he
threw to the ocean spray,
And for each foot he wrought a kind of raft

_100 Of tamarisk, and tamarisk-like sprigs,
And bound them in a
lump with withy twigs.
14.
And on his feet he tied these sandals light,
The trail of whose
wide leaves might not betray
His track; and then, a self-sufficing
wight, _105 Like a man hastening on some distant way,
He from
Pieria's mountain bent his flight;
But an old man perceived the infant
pass
Down green Onchestus heaped like beds with grass.
15.
The old man stood dressing his sunny vine: _110 'Halloo! old
fellow with the crooked shoulder!
You grub those stumps? before
they will bear wine
Methinks even you must grow a little older:

Attend, I pray, to this advice of mine,
As you would 'scape what
might appal a bolder-- _115 Seeing, see not--and hearing, hear
not--and--
If you have understanding--understand.'
16.
So saying, Hermes roused the oxen vast;
O'er shadowy
mountain and resounding dell,
And flower-paven plains, great
Hermes passed; _120 Till the black night divine, which favouring fell

Around his steps, grew gray, and morning fast
Wakened the world
to work, and from her cell
Sea-strewn, the Pallantean Moon sublime

Into her watch-tower just began to climb. _125
17.
Now to Alpheus he had driven all
The broad-foreheaded oxen
of the Sun;
They came unwearied to the lofty stall
And to the
water-troughs which ever run
Through the fresh fields--and when
with rushgrass tall, _130 Lotus and all sweet herbage, every one
Had
pastured been, the great God made them move
Towards the stall in a
collected drove.
18.
A mighty pile of wood the God then heaped,
And having soon
conceived the mystery _135 Of fire, from two smooth laurel branches
stripped
The bark, and rubbed them in his palms;--on high

Suddenly forth the burning vapour leaped
And the divine child saw
delightedly.--
Mercury first found out for human weal _140
Tinder-box, matches, fire-irons, flint and steel.
19.
And fine dry logs and roots innumerous
He gathered in a delve
upon the ground--
And kindled them--and instantaneous

The
strength of the fierce flame was breathed around: _145 And whilst the

might of glorious Vulcan thus
Wrapped the great pile with glare and
roaring sound,
Hermes dragged forth two heifers, lowing loud,

Close to the fire--such might was in the God.
20.
And on the earth upon their backs he threw _150 The panting
beasts, and rolled them o'er and o'er,
And bored their lives out.
Without more ado
He cut up fat and flesh, and down before
The fire,
on spits of wood he placed the two,
Toasting their flesh and ribs, and
all the gore _155 Pursed in the bowels; and while this was done
He
stretched their hides over a craggy stone.
21.
We mortals let an ox grow old, and then
Cut it up after long
consideration,--
But joyous-minded Hermes from the glen _160 Drew
the fat spoils to the more open station
Of a flat smooth space, and
portioned them; and when
He had by lot assigned to each a ration

Of the twelve Gods, his mind became aware
Of all the joys which in
religion are. _165
22.
For the sweet savour of the roasted meat
Tempted him though
immortal. Natheless
He checked his haughty will and did not eat,

Though what it cost him words can scarce express,
And every wish to
put such morsels sweet _170 Down his most sacred throat, he did
repress;
But soon within the lofty portalled stall
He placed the fat
and flesh and bones and all.
23.
And every trace of the fresh butchery
And cooking, the God
soon made disappear, _175 As if it all had vanished through the sky;

He burned the hoofs and horns and head and hair,--
The insatiate fire
devoured them hungrily;--
And when he saw that everything was
clear,
He quenched the coal, and trampled the black dust, _180 And
in the stream his bloody sandals tossed.
24.
All night he worked in the serene moonshine--
But when the
light of day was spread abroad
He sought his natal mountain-peaks
divine.
On his long wandering, neither Man nor God _185 Had met
him, since he killed Apollo's kine,
Nor house-dog had barked at him
on his road;
Now he obliquely through the keyhole passed,
Like a
thin mist, or an autumnal blast.
25.
Right through the temple of the spacious cave _190 He went with

soft light feet--as if his tread
Fell not on earth; no sound their falling
gave;
Then to his cradle he crept quick, and spread
The
swaddling-clothes about him; and the knave
Lay playing with the
covering of the bed _195 With his left hand about his knees--the right

Held his beloved tortoise-lyre tight.
26.
There he lay innocent as a new-born child,
As gossips say; but
though he was a God,
The Goddess, his fair mother, unbeguiled, _200
Knew all that he had done being abroad:
'Whence come you, and
from what adventure wild,
You cunning rogue, and where have you
abode
All the long night, clothed in your impudence?
What