Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/79

 Book III. Where cooly caves afford a shelt'ring seat,

And rocks o'er-arching screen them from the heat.

Near shady Silarus, and Alburnus, crown'd

With verdant holm-oaks, many a fly is found,

Asilus call'd; so known to Roman fame;

The Greeks to Oestros have now chang'd the name:

Whizzing he stings; the cattle with affright

Forth from the forests rush with rapid flight;

Repeated bellowings rend the madding sky;

Tanager's thirsty shores, and all the woods reply.

With this did Juno, studious to torment

Th' Inachian heifer, her fell fury vent.

Drive too this monster from the pregnant herd,

And (for in noon-day heats he most is fear'd)

Feed them, when eastern skies first blush with light,

Or when the twinkling stars lead the cool night.

On the new-born your care you next must place:

With searing irons note their sorts, and race;

Whom you select to propagate the breed,

Whom at the altars you reserve to bleed,

Or whom you purpose at the share to toil,

And into broken clods cleave the rough soil.

Calves, that to rural tasks you mean to train,

(The rest unheeded crop the verdant plain) In-