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128 Where was he?

Specially protected by Ilithyia, the kind goddess of Birth, who stays the mother's pains, and by the Moiræ or Fates, who take charge of the new-born child and ordain his future lot, Evadne had borne a child inspired of heaven, deep in the "azure" thicket. But in her utter despair the poor mother laid her child upon the ground, and turned weeping away. Like Hagar, she could not see the child die.

And now the king was asking for the child. But four days had passed since that miserable parting of child and mother, and none had seen him since. Where was he now?

Apollo had not forgotten the son, whom his very mother had forsaken. She had

Left him laid on earth

But thither, lo! with honey's harmless bane

To feed him, came two heaven-sent bright-eyed snakes."

And so, when the seekers came upon him,—

There he lay

Safe couched in reeds amid the trackless wild,

His soft limbs bathed in gold and purple ray

Of violets. So the mother bade him bear

Ever the violets' name:"

—i.e., she named him Iamus: IA being the Greek name for some sort of flowers, which, if not identical with our violets, sufficiently correspond to them for the purposes of readers who are not professed botanists.

The promises of the god were fulfilled. The child became a man, and Apollo granted him a double por-