Young Folks History of Rome | Page 4

Once in the Strophades,
some clusters belonging to the Ionian Islands, when he and his troops
had landed to get food, and were eating the flesh of the numerous goats
which they found climbing about the rocks, down on them came the
harpies, horrible birds with women's faces and hooked hands, with
which they snatched away the food and spoiled what they could not eat.
The Trojans shot at them, but the arrows glanced off their feathers and
did not hurt them. However, they all flew off except one, who sat on a
high rock, and croaked out that the Trojans would be punished for thus
molesting the harpies by being tossed about till they should reach Italy,
but there they should not build their city till they should have been so
hungry as to eat their very trenchers.
[Illustration: THE COAST.]
They sailed away from this dismal prophetess, and touched on the coast
of Epirus, where Æneas found his cousin Helenus, son to old Priam,
reigning over a little new Troy, and married to Andromache, Hector's
wife, whom he had gained after Pyrrhus had been killed. Helenus was a
prophet, and gave Æneas much advice. In especial he said that when
the Trojans should come to Italy, they would find, under the holly-trees
by the river side, a large white old sow lying on the ground, with a litter
of thirty little pigs round her, and this should be a sign to them where
they were to build their city.
By his advice the Trojans coasted round the south of Sicily, instead of
trying to pass the strait between the dreadful Scylla and Charybdis, and
just below Mount Etna an unfortunate man came running down to the
beach begging to be taken in. He was a Greek, who had been left
behind when Ulysses escaped from Polyphemus' cave, and had made
his way to the forests, where he had lived ever since. They had just
taken him in when they saw Cyclops coming down, with a pine tree for
a staff, to wash the burning hollow of his lost eye in the sea, and they

rowed off in great terror.
[Illustration: MOUNT ETNA.]
Poor old Anchises died shortly after, and while his son was still
sorrowing for him, Juno, who hated every Trojan, stirred up a terrible
tempest, which drove the ships to the south, until, just as the sea began
to calm down, they came into a beautiful bay, enclosed by tall cliffs
with woods overhanging them. Here the tired wanderers landed, and,
lighting a fire, Æneas went in quest of food. Coming out of the forest,
they looked down from a hill, and beheld a multitude of people
building a city, raising walls, houses, towers, and temples. Into one of
these temples Æneas entered, and to his amazement he found the walls
sculptured with all the story of the siege of Troy, and all his friends so
perfectly represented, that he burst into tears at the sight.
Just then a beautiful queen, attended by a whole troop of nymphs, came
into the temple. This lady was Dido; her husband, Sichæus, had been
king of Tyre, till he was murdered by his brother Pygmalion, who
meant to have married her, but she fled from him with a band of
faithful Tyrians and all her husband's treasure, and had landed on the
north coast of Africa. There she begged of the chief of the country as
much land as could be enclosed by a bullock's hide. He granted this
readily; and Dido, cutting the hide into the finest possible strips,
managed to measure off with it ground enough to build the splendid
city which she had named Carthage. She received Æneas most kindly,
and took all his men into her city, hoping to keep them there for ever,
and make him her husband. Æneas himself was so happy there, that he
forgot all his plans and the prophecies he had heard, until Jupiter sent
Mercury to rouse him to fulfil his destiny. He obeyed the call; and Dido
was so wretched at his departure that she caused a great funeral pile to
be built, laid herself on the top, and stabbed herself with Æneas' sword;
the pile was burnt, and the Trojans saw the flame from their ships
without knowing the cause.
[Illustration: CARTHAGE.]
By-and-by Æneas landed at a place in Italy named Cumæ. There dwelt

one of the Sybils. These were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had
endowed with deep wisdom; and when Æneas went to consult the
Cumæan Sybil, she told him that he must visit the under-world of Pluto
to learn his fate. First, however, he had to go into a forest, and find
there and gather a golden bough, which he was to bear in his hand to