Page:Metamorphoses.djvu/129

METAMORPHOSES BOOK II discourse sweetly on the pipe, the cattle thou wast keeping strayed, 'tis said, all unguarded into the Pylian fields. There Maia's son spied them, and by his native craft drove them into the woods and hid them there. Nobody saw the theft except one old man well known in that neighbourhood, called Battus by all the countryside. He, as a hired servant of the wealthy Neleus, was watching a herd of blooded mares in the glades and rich pasture fields thereabouts. Mercury feared his tattling and, drawing him aside with cajoling hand, said: "Who- ever you are, my man, if anyone should chance to ask you if you have seen any cattle going by here, say that you have not; and, that your kindness may not go unrewarded, you may choose out a sleek heifer for your pay "; and he gave him the heifer forth- with. The old man took it and replied: « Go on stranger, and feel safe. That stone will tell of your thefts sooner than I"; and he pointed out a stone. The son of Jove pretended to go away, but soon came back with changed voice and form, and said: " My good fellow, if you have seen any cattle going along this way, help me out, and don't refuse to tell about it, for they were stolen. 1'll give you a cow and a bull into the bargain it you'll tell." The old man, tempted by the double reward, said: "You'll find them over there at the foot of that mountain." And there, true enough, they were. Mercury laughed him to scorn and said: " Would you betray me to myself, you rogue? me to my very face?"So saying, he turned the faithless fellow into a flinty stone, which even to this day is called touch-stone; and the old reproach still rests upon the undeserving flint.