Page:An English Garner Ingatherings from Our History and Literature (Volume 1 1877).pdf/169

 * And now beholding better every place, Each hill and dale, each river, rock and tree; And musing thereupon a little space, They thought the Earth their mother well might be; And that the stones that lay before their face To be her bones did nothing disagree: Wherefore to prove if it were false or true, The scattered stones behind their backs they threw.

Forthwith the stones (a wondrous thing to hear) Began to move as they had life conceived; And waxed greater than at first they were, And more and more the shape of man received; Till every part most plainly did appear That neither eye nor sense could be deceived: They heard, they spake, they went and walked too As other living men are wont to do.

Thus was the earth replenished anew With people strange, sprung up with little pain; Of whose increase, the progeny that grew Did soon supply the empty world again: But now a greater care there did ensue How such a mighty number to maintain; Since food there was not any to be found, For that great flood had all destroyed and drowned.

Then did DEUCALION first the Art invent Of Angling, and his people taught the same; And to the woods and groves with them he went Fit tools to find for this most needful game. There from the trees the longest rinds they rent, Wherewith strong lines they roughly twist and frame, And of each crook of hardest bush and brake, They made them hooks the hungry fish to take.