whispering sea.
Then they stored her well with food and water, and pulled the

ladder up on board, and settled themselves each man to his
oar, and kept time to Orpheus' harp; and away across the bay

they rowed southward, while the people lined the cliffs; and
the women wept, while the men shouted, at the starting of

that gallant crew.
PART IV - HOW THE ARGONAUTS SAILED TO COLCHIS

AND what happened next, my children, whether it be true or
not, stands written in ancient songs, which you shall read

for yourselves some day. And grand old songs they are,
written in grand old rolling verse; and they call them the

Songs of Orpheus, or the Orphics, to this day. And they tell
how the heroes came to Aphetai, across the bay, and waited

for the south-west wind, and chose themselves a captain from
their crew: and how all called for Heracles, because he was

the strongest and most huge; but Heracles refused, and called
for Jason, because he was the wisest of them all. So Jason

was chosen captain; and Orpheus heaped a pile of wood, and
slew a bull, and offered it to Hera, and called all the

heroes to stand round, each man's head crowned with olive,
and to strike their swords into the bull. Then he filled a

golden goblet with the bull's blood, and with wheaten flour,
and honey, and wine, and the bitter salt-sea water, and bade

the heroes taste. So each tasted the goblet, and passed it
round, and vowed an awful vow: and they vowed before the

sun, and the night, and the blue-haired sea who shakes the
land, to stand by Jason faithfully in the adventure of the

golden fleece; and whosoever shrank back, or disobeyed, or
turned traitor to his vow, then justice should minister

against him, and the Erinnues who track guilty men.
Then Jason lighted the pile, and burnt the carcase of the

bull; and they went to their ship and sailed eastward, like
men who have a work to do; and the place from which they went

was called Aphetai, the sailing-place, from that day forth.
Three thousand years and more they sailed away, into the

unknown Eastern seas; and great nations have come and gone
since then, and many a storm has swept the earth; and many a

mightyarmament, to which ARGO would be but one small boat;
English and French, Turkish and Russian, have sailed those

waters since; yet the fame of that small ARGO lives for ever,
and her name is become a proverb among men.

So they sailed past the Isle of Sciathos, with the Cape of
Sepius on their left, and turned to the northward toward

Pelion, up the long Magnesian shore. On their right hand was
the open sea, and on their left old Pelion rose, while the

clouds crawled round his dark pine-forests, and his caps of
summer snow. And their hearts yearned for the dear old

mountain, as they thought of pleasant days gone by, and of
the sports of their boyhood, and their hunting, and their

schooling in the cave beneath the cliff. And at last Peleus
spoke, 'Let us land here, friends, and climb the dear old

hill once more. We are going on a fearful journey; who knows
if we shall see Pelion again? Let us go up to Cheiron our

master, and ask his blessing ere we start. And I have a boy,
too, with him, whom he trains as he trained me once - the son

whom Thetis brought me, the silver-footed lady of the sea,
whom I caught in the cave, and tamed her, though she changed

her shape seven times. For she changed, as I held her, into
water, and to vapour, and to burning flame, and to a rock,

and to a black-maned lion, and to a tall and stately tree.
But I held her and held her ever, till she took her own shape

again, and led her to my father's house, and won her for my
bride. And all the rulers of Olympus came to our wedding,

and the heavens and the earth rejoiced together, when an
Immortalweddedmortal man. And now let me see my son; for

it is not often I shall see him upon earth: famous he will
be, but short-lived, and die in the flower of youth.'

So Tiphys the helmsman steered them to the shore under the
crags of Pelion; and they went up through the dark pine-

forests towards the Centaur's cave.
And they came into the misty hall, beneath the snow-crowned

crag; and saw the great Centaur lying, with his huge limbs
spread upon the rock; and beside him stood Achilles, the

child whom no steel could wound, and played upon his harp
right sweetly, while Cheiron watched and smiled.

Then Cheiron leapt up and welcomed them, and kissed them
every one, and set a feast before them of swine's flesh, and

venison, and good wine; and young Achilles served them, and
carried the golden goblet round. And after supper all the

heroes clapped their hands, and called on Orpheus to sing;
but he refused, and said, 'How can I, who am the younger,

sing before our ancient host?' So they called on Cheiron to
sing, and Achilles brought him his harp; and he began a

wondrous song; a famous story of old time, of the fight
between the Centaurs and the Lapithai, which you may still

see carved in stone. (1) He sang how his brothers came to
ruin by their folly, when they were mad with wine; and how

they and the heroes fought, with fists, and teeth, and the
goblets from which they drank; and how they tore up the pine-

trees in their fury, and hurled great crags of stone, while
the mountains thundered with the battle, and the land was

wasted far and wide; till the Lapithai drove them from their
home in the rich Thessalian plains to the lonely glens of

Pindus, leaving Cheiron all alone. And the heroes praised
his song right heartily; for some of them had helped in that

great fight.
Then Orpheus took the lyre, and sang of Chaos, and the making

of the wondrous World, and how all things sprang from Love,
who could not live alone in the Abyss. And as he sang, his

voice rose from the cave, above the crags, and through the
tree-tops, and the glens of oak and pine. And the trees

bowed their heads when they heard it, and the gray rocks
cracked and rang, and the forest beasts crept near to listen,

and the birds forsook their nests and hovered round. And old
Cheiron claps his hands together, and beat his hoofs upon the

ground, for wonder at that magic song.
Then Peleus kissed his boy, and wept over him, and they went

down to the ship; and Cheiron came down with them, weeping,
and kissed them one by one, and blest them, and promised to

them great renown. And the heroes wept when they left him,
till their great hearts could weep no more; for he was kind

and just and pious, and wiser than all beasts and men. Then
he went up to a cliff, and prayed for them, that they might

come home safe and well; while the heroes rowed away, and
watched him standing on his cliff above the sea, with his

great hands raised toward heaven, and his white locks waving
in the wind; and they strained their eyes to watch him to the

last, for they felt that they should look on him no more.
So they rowed on over the long swell of the sea, past

Olympus, the seat of the Immortals, and past the wooded bays
of Athos, and Samothrace the sacred isle; and they came past

Lemnos to the Hellespont, and through the narrow strait of
Abydos, and so on into the Propontis, which we call Marmora

now. And there they met with Cyzicus, ruling in Asia over
the Dolions, who, the songs say, was the son of AEneas, of

whom you will hear many a tale some day. For Homer tells us
how he fought at Troy, and Virgil how he sailed away and

founded Rome; and men believed until late years that from him
sprang our old British kings. Now Cyzicus, the songs say,

welcomed the heroes, for his father had been one of Cheiron's
scholars; so he welcomed them, and feasted them, and stored

their ship with corn and wine, and cloaks and rugs, the songs
say, and shirts, of which no doubt they stood in need.

But at night, while they lay sleeping, came down on them
terrible men, who lived with the bears in the mountains, like

Titans or giants in shape; for each of them had six arms, and
they fought with young firs and pines. But Heracles killed

them all before morn with his deadly poisoned arrows; but
among them, in the darkness, he slew Cyzicus the kindly

prince.
Then they got to their ship and to their oars, and Tiphys

bade them cast off the hawsers and go to sea. But as he
spoke a whirlwind came, and spun the ARGO round, and twisted

the hawsers together, so that no man could loose them. Then
Tiphys dropped the rudder from his hand, and cried, 'This

comes from the Gods above.' But Jason went forward, and
asked counsel of the magic bough.

Then the magic bough spoke, and answered, 'This is because
you have slain Cyzicus your friend. You must appease his

soul, or you will never leave this shore.'
Jason went back sadly, and told the heroes what he had heard.

And they leapt on shore, and searched till dawn; and at dawn
they found the body, all rolled in dust and blood, among the

corpses of those monstrous beasts. And they wept over their
kind host, and laid him on a fair bed, and heaped a huge

mound over him, and offered black sheep at his tomb, and
Orpheus sang a magic song to him, that his spirit might have

rest. And then they held games at the tomb, after the custom
of those times, and Jason gave prizes to each winner. To

Ancaeus he gave a golden cup, for he wrestled best of all;
and to Heracles a silver one, for he was the strongest of

all; and to Castor, who rode best, a golden crest; and
Polydeuces the boxer had a rich carpet, and to Orpheus for

his song a sandal with golden wings. But Jason himself was
the best of all the archers, and the Minuai crowned him with

an olive crown; and so, the songs say, the soul of good
Cyzicus was appeased and the heroes went on their way in

peace.
But when Cyzicus' wife heard that he was dead she died

likewise of grief; and her tears became a fountain of clear
water, which flows the whole year round.

Then they rowed away, the songs say, along the Mysian shore,
and past the mouth of Rhindacus, till they found a pleasant

bay, sheltered by the long ridges of Arganthus, and by high
walls of basalt rock. And there they ran the ship ashore

upon the yellow sand, and furled the sail, and took the mast
down, and lashed it in its crutch. And next they let down

the ladder, and went ashore to sport and rest.
And there Heracles went away into the woods, bow in hand, to

hunt wild deer; and Hylas the fair boy slipt away after him,
and followed him by stealth, until he lost himself among the

glens, and sat down weary to rest himself by the side of a
lake; and there the water nymphs came up to look at him, and

loved him, and carried him down under the lake to be their
playfellow, for ever happy and young. And Heracles sought

for him in vain, shouting his name till all the mountains
rang; but Hylas never heard him, far down under the sparkling

lake. So while Heracles wandered searching for him, a fair
breeze sprang up, and Heracles was nowhere to be found; and

the ARGO sailed away, and Heracles was left behind, and never
saw the noble Phasian stream.

Then the Minuai came to a doleful land, where Amycus the
giant ruled, and cared nothing for the laws of Zeus, but

challenged all strangers to box with him, and those whom he
conquered he slew. But Polydeuces the boxer struck him a

harder blow than he ever felt before, and slew him; and the
Minuai went on up the Bosphorus, till they came to the city

of Phineus, the fierce Bithynian king; for Zetes and Calais
bade Jason land there, because they had a work to do.

And they went up from the shore toward the city, through
forests white with snow; and Phineus came out to meet them

with a lean and woful face, and said, 'Welcome, gallant
heroes, to the land of bitter blasts, the land of cold and

misery; yet I will feast you as best I can.' And he led them
in, and set meat before them; but before they could put their

hands to their mouths, down came two fearful monsters, the
like of whom man never saw; for they had the faces and the

hair of fair maidens, but the wings and claws of hawks; and
they snatched the meat from off the table, and flew shrieking

out above the roofs.
Then Phineus beat his breast and cried, 'These are the

Harpies, whose names are the Whirlwind and the Swift, the
daughters of Wonder and of the Amber-nymph, and they rob us

night and day. They carried off the daughters of Pandareus,
whom all the Gods had blest; for Aphrodite fed them on

Olympus with honey and milk and wine; and Hera gave them
beauty and wisdom, and Athene skill in all the arts; but when

they came to their wedding, the Harpies snatched them both
away, and gave them to be slaves to the Erinnues, and live in

horror all their days. And now they haunt me, and my people,
and the Bosphorus, with fearful storms; and sweep away our

food from off our tables, so that we starve in spite of all
our wealth.'

Then up rose Zetes and Calais, the winged sons of the North-
wind, and said, 'Do you not know us, Phineus, and these wings

which grow upon our backs?' And Phineus hid his face in
terror; but he answered not a word.

'Because you have been a traitor, Phineus, the Harpies haunt
you night and day. Where is Cleopatra our sister, your wife,

whom you keep in prison? and where are her two children, whom
you blinded in your rage, at the bidding of an evil woman,