ments exceed my warmest wishes. She has learned my language with surprising quickness: she has grown up to perfection like a flourishing plant. Her beauty is so transcendent as to attract every eye upon her, both Grecian and foreign. Wherever she appears-in the temple, in the ✓ course, or in the market-place-she draws to her the looks and thoughts of all, like the model statue of some goddess. Yet, with all this, she is the cause of great uneasiness to me: she* obstinately refuses to marry, determines to lead a life of celibacy, consecrates herself to Diana, and spends most of her leisure hours in the chase, and with her bow. This is a severe disappointment to me, for I wished to give her to my sister's son, an accomplished and graceful young man; but my wishes are frustrated by this preposterous fancy of hers. Neither entreaties, nor promises, nor reasoning, can work upon her; and, what is most vexatious, she wounds me, as they say, with a shaft drawn from my own bow, and employs the eloquence which I have taught her in magnifying the way of life she has chosen. She is inexhaustible in the praises of virginity; places it next the life of the gods-pure, unmixed, uncorrupt. She is equally skilful in depreciating love, and Venus, and marriage. I implore your assistance in this matter; for which reason I was glad to seize the opportunity you gave me, and have troubled you with a long story. Do not desert me on this occasion, my good Calasiris, but employ the wisdom you are master of, or even any charm you may know; persuade her by words, or work upon her by incantations, to leave this unnatural course, and to feel that she is born a woman: you can, I know, do this if you will. She is not averse to the conversation of men; she has been used to their company from her childhood. She lives, too, very near you, here within the precincts of the temple. Condescend, I beseech, to hear me, and grant what I desire. Suffer me not to spend a melancholy and lonely old age, without hopes of having my family continued; I entreat you by Apollo, and your country's gods." "I was moved by his supplications, Cnemon. I could scarcely refrain from tears: his own flowed in great abun*"Solâ contenta Diana, Æternum telorum et virginitatis amorem dance. I promised, in short, to use my utmost skill in attempting what he desired. We were still talking, when a messenger arrived in haste, and told us that the head of the Enianian embassy was at the door, and extremely impatient for the priest to appear, and begin the sacred rites. When I inquired who the Enianians were, what was the nature of the embassy which they had sent, and what sacrifice he was going to perform; he told me that the Enianians were a principal nation of Thessaly, entirely Grecian, being descended from Deucalion-that their country extended along the Malian bay-that they called their metropolis Hypata ;* as they would insinuate, because it was fit to rule over all the cities of the province; as others pretended, because it was situated under Mount Eta-that the embassy was sent by the Ænianians every fourth year, at the time of the Pythian games-and the sacrifice offered to Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, who was here surprised and slain,* at the very altar of Apollo, by Orestes the son of Agamemnon. But the embassy of the present year will be yet more magnificent than any of the former ones; for the head of it prides himself in being descended from Achilles. "I met the young man the other day, and indeed he seems worthy of the family of Peleus: such is the nobleness of his stature and deportment, that you will easily believe him sprung from a goddess. "When I wondered how it came to pass, that he, being an Ænianian, should pretend that he was of the race of Achilles (for Homer, our great Egyptian poet makes Achilles a Phthiotian), "the young man, said Charicles, "claims him entirely as their own: for Thetis, he says, certainly married Peleus out of the Malian bay; and the country which extended along that bay was anciently called Phthia: but the glory of the hero has induced others to claim him falsely as their countryman. He is, besides, in another way, related to the Eacida: Mnestheus is his ancestor, the son of Sperchius and Polydora, the daughter * Υπάτας—either from 'υπάτος, eminent, or 'υποτάσσω, to be subjected. "Ast illum, ereptæ magno inflammatus amore Conjugis, et scelerum Furiis agitatus, Orestes Excipit incautum, patriasque obtruncat ad aras."Virg. Æn. iii. 330. of Peleus, who went with Achilles to the siege of Troy; and, being so nearly connected with him, was among the chief leaders of the Myrmidons. "The ambassador abounds in arguments to support the claim of his country to Achilles. He insists much upon this present embassy and sacrifice to Neoptolemus; the honour of performing which, all the Thessalians have, by common consent, yielded up to the Enianians, whereby they admit that they are most nearly related to him." "Whether this be truth or vain assumption, said I, be so good now, if you please, as to call in the ambassador, for I am extremely desirous to see him. "Charicles immediately sent to him, and the young man entered with an air and aspect truly worthy of Achilles. His neck straight and erect, his hair thrown back off his forehead; his nose and open nostrils giving signs of an impetuous temper; his eyes of a deep blue, inclining to black, imparting an animated but amiable look to his countenance, like the sea smoothing itself from a storm into a calm. "After he had received and returned our salutations, he said it was time to proceed to the sacrifice, that there might be sufficient space for the ceremonies which were to be performed to the Manes of the hero, and for the procession which was to follow them.-"I am ready," replied Charicles, and rising, said to me, "If you have not yet seen Chariclea, you will see her to-day; for, as a priestess of Diana, she will be present at these rites and the procession. "But I, Cnemon, had often seen the young woman before; I had sacrificed and conversed with her upon sacred subjects. However, I said nothing of it; and, waiting for what might happen, we went together to the temple. The Thessalians had prepared everything ready for the sacrifice. We approached the altar; the youth began the sacred rites; the priest having uttered a prayer, and from her shrine the Pythoness pronounced this oracle: * Delphians, regard with reverential care, Both him the goddess-born, and her the fair; * Τὴν χάριν ἐν πρωτοις, ἀυτὰρ κλέος ΰστατ ̓ ἔχουσαν Οἱ νηὸν προλιπόντες ἐμὸν, καὶ κῦμα τεμόντες, They both my fane shall leave, and oceans past, There shall the gods reward their pious vows, "When they who surrounded the shrine heard this oracle, they were perplexed, and doubted what it should signify. Each interpreted it differently, as his inclinations and understanding led him : none, however, laid hold of its true meaning. Oracles indeed, and dreams, are generally to be explained only by the event. And beside, the Delphians, struck with the preparations which were making for the procession, hastened to behold it, neglecting or deferring any farther scrutiny into the oracular response. BOOK III. "WHEN the ceremony was over, and the procession had passed by," continued Calasiris-" But," said Cnemon, interrupting him, "the ceremony is not over, Father; you have not made me a spectator of the procession, whereas I am very desirous both of hearing and seeing; you treat me like a guest who, as they say, is come a day after the feast: why should you just open the theatre, only to close it again?" "I was unwilling," said Calasiris, to detain you from what you are most desirous to know, by a detail which has little or nothing to do with the principal end of my narration; but since you must be a passing spectator, and by your fondness for shows declare yourself to be an Athenian, I will endeavour briefly to describe the exhibition to you; and I shall do so the more willingly, on account of the consequences which followed it. “Ηξοντ' ἠελίου πρὸς χθόνα κυανέην, Τῆπερ ἀριστοβίων μέγ ̓ ἀέθλιον ἐξάψονται, Λευκὸν ἐπὶ κροτάφων στέμμα μελαινομένων. * Why sable brows?—μeλarvopé vwv?—I am not obliged to explain oracles. Such is the remark of a former translator. I venture to suggest that the young lovers were rather sun-burnt with travelling, upon their arrival in Æthiopia; and Lisle is of my opinion, for he translates -“ their tanned temples." The first line seems intended to be a play upon the name of Chariclea, xúpiç kλέog. I have accordingly endeavoured to convey this in the translation. : "The procession began with an hecatomb of victims, led by some of the inferior ministers of the temple, roughlooking men, in white and girt-up garments. Their right hands and breasts were naked, and they bore a two-edged ахе. The oxen were black, with moderately arched and brawny necks-their horns equal, and very little bent; some were gilt, others adorned with flowers-their legs bent inwards *—and their deep dewlaps flowing down to their knees their number, in accordance with the name, exactly an hundred. A variety of other different victims came afterwards, each species separate and in order, attended with pipes and flutes, sending forth a strain prelusive of the sacrifice these were followed by a troop of fair and long-waisted Thessalian maidens, with dishevelled locksthey were distributed into two companies; the first division bore baskets full of fruits and flowers; the second, vases of conserves and spices, which filled the air with fragrance: they carried these on their heads; thus, their hands being at liberty, they joined them together, so that they could move along and lead the dance. The key-note to the melody was sounded by the next division, who were to sing the whole of the hymn appointed for this festival, which contained the praises of Thetis, of Peleus, and their son, and of Neoptolemus. After this, O CnemonCnemon me no Cnemons," said the latter; why not recite the hymn to me instead of depriving me of so much pleasure? Make me, I beseech you, an auditor at this festival as well as a spectator."-" You shall be so if you desire it," said Calasiris; "the hymn, as nearly as I can recollect, ran as follows: * 66 Thetis, the golden-haired, we sing. To Peleus wed, at Jove's command, Σιμοί. + Τὰν Θέτιν ἀείδω, χρυσοέθειρα θέτι, "But |