Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/407

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Passing through the tumult of the sea, until you reach

The Gorgonian plains of Cisthene, where

The Phorcides dwell, old virgins,

Three, swan-shaped, having a common eye,

One-toothed, whom neither the sun looks on

With his beams, nor nightly moon ever.

And near, their winged sisters three,

Dragon-scaled Gorgons, odious to men,

Whom no mortal beholding will have breath;

Such danger do I tell thee.

But hear another odious sight;

Beware the gryphons, sharp-mouthed

Dogs of Zeus, which bark not, and the one-eyed Arimaspian

Host, going on horseback, who dwell about

The golden-flowing flood of Pluto's channel;

These go not near. But to a distant land

Thou 'lt come, a dusky race, who near the fountains

Of the sun inhabit, where is the Æthiopian river.

Creep down the banks of this, until thou com'st

To a descent, where from Byblinian mounts

The Nile sends down its sacred palatable stream.

This will conduct thee to the triangled land

Nilean, where, Io, 't is decreed

Thou and thy progeny shall form the distant colony.

If aught of this is unintelligible to thee, and hard to be found out,

Repeat thy questions, and learn clearly;

For more leisure than I want is granted me. Ch. If to her aught remaining or omitted

Thou hast to tell of her pernicious wandering,