With warlike Amazons, their longer stay
Brings fierce contention, and no bloodless fray.
Those plains they held, a race inur'd to strife,
The foes of civil rights, and social life;
For cruel injuries their cares engage;

And wrongs they perpetrate; and wars they wage.
Them to the warrior god, Harmonia bore;
And from their sire descends the thirst of gore.
Th' Acmonian shades beheld the fierce embrace,
That fill'd the region, with a martial race.

Again the Zephyrs blew, by Jove's command;
And bade them leave that inauspicious land;
Else Themiscyra* soon, with rude alarms,
Had seen th' assembled Amazons in arms.
For, not combin'd within one wall they bide;
A threefold tribe, the region they divide.-
Hippolyta beneath her warlike reign
Held Themiscyra, with the subject plain.

From seats remote Lycastian troops advance.

1440

And bold Chadesians, train'd to wield the lance.—
Another day, another night had roll'd.-

The land of Chalybes they now behold.

To them nor vine nor orchard plant is dear;
The glebe they turn not, with the patient steer;
Nor bleating flocks in dewy meadows feed ;-
Severer toils employ that hardy breed.

Their sinewy arms earth's inmost entrails feel.
From stubborn clods they force the temper'd steel.
Their food they win, from unproductive soil;
And never morn allows repose from toil;

1451

1460

While, black and grim with smoke, with ashes blear,

Thro' ceaseless labour painful life they bear.

Then, sailing round the cape, that tow'rs above, Grac'd with the name of Genetaan Jove.

* A city and district belonging to the Amazons.

1470

1480

Advancing in their course, th' advent❜rous band Were borne along the Tibarenian land. Among that race strange usages they find, Inverting all the customs of mankind. When to the light their infant offspring rise, The husbands utter groans, and piercing cries; With many a bandage bind the drooping head, And helpless sink, upon the sickly bed. The wives for them the choicest food prepare, And baths adapted for the teeming fair.A region, then, they past, and sacred hill, Where tow'rs of wood the Mossynaci fill. In stages high they rear the wooden frame; And from th' abodes the people take their name. Far diff'rent institutes their conduct sway, From all the rules, that common men obey. The public objects, we are wont to treat, In the wide forum, and the crouded street, With strange and studied secrecy they veil, And deep in privacies of home conceal. What native instincts, and the voice of fame, From public view discard, as acts of shame, Uncheck'd and shameless, as those herds that graze, Such they perform in the meridian blaze. Unknown to them the reverential awe, That in a brother's eye can read the law. Nor lasting harmonies, of kindred mind, Nor contracts firm in wedded union bind. The public way, the meadow, and the grove Are all the scenes of base promiscuous love. Within the highest tow'r the king resides, And equal justice for the crowd provides.

1490

* Mossyni and Ecus.-Two Greek words of corresponding sense.

Wo to the sovereign!-should his erring sense
Pervert the right, or partial law dispense.
His vengeful subjects close him in his tow'r,
Till pining famine brings the mortal hour.

1500

1510

This region past, all day they ply'd their oars, While, near them lay Aretias' sea-girt shores. (The breeze had languished the preceding night,) On high the bird of Mars pursued his flight. An inmate of that isle, thro' air he springs, And o'er the rapid vessel shakes his wings; Then, shot a feather, pointed as a dart; Oileus' shoulder felt the sudden smart.— His oar fell idle from his powerless hand.Amaze and terror fill'd the gazing band; At such a weapon, rushing from on high. At such a foe, suspended in the sky. Then Eribotes, from his station near, Arose, with pity fill'd and mingled fear. His friend's relief employs his tender skill; His gentle hands extract the feather'd ill. Then, from the sheath, his baldrick he unbound, A ligature to close the gaping wound. But, now, pursuing his companion's flight, A second bird attracts their wond'ring sight. 1520 'Gainst him, with steady aim, the bow was bent. The son of Eurytus* an arrow sent, Nor sent in vain.-The flying death he feels; And round, in many a dizzy circle, wheels. Then, near them falls.-The son of Aleus† broke The general silence, and the croud bespoke.

"Th' expected isle, Aretias, lies full near. "These birds, undoubted harbingers appear."How shall our band this hateful tribe assail? "Our stock of arrows in th' assault must fail.

1530

"Let prudence, then, combine her aiding hand;
"If there, as Phineus bids, we mean to land.-
"When great Alcides, on Arcadia's soil,
"Pursued the progress of his glorious toil,
"From fair Stymphalus' wide expanse, to chace
"The brooding Ploïdes, pernicious race,
"Most foul and hateful of the plumy kind;-
"I saw the chief.-His quiver he resign'd.
"His station on a lofty rock he took.

"His mighty hands the brazen cymbals shook. 1540 "Far fled the brood abhorr'd, on sounding wings, “And darken'd air with screams of terror rings."I speak, with past experience for my guide. "Some apt expedient, let us now provide. "While crested helmets every head defend; "To row, by turns, let half our number bend; "Half from the deck the burnish'd shield display, "And shake the lance, to scare the foes away. "All, at one instant, raise terrific cries; "Th' unwonted clamours shall the brood surprise. "The voice, the nodding crest, the brandish'd spear, "Shall daunt the swarms with salutary fear.

"And when that isle receives our gallant crew,

1549

"Then clash your shields, your clamours then renew.”
He ceas'd-the counsel just applauses found;
And all their heads with brazen helmets crown’d.
Terrific splendour; and with purple glow'd
The crests, that nodded as by turns they row'd.
Some, on the deck the spear and shield extend,
A warlike roof, the vessel to defend.

As when the roof of tiles some builder forms,
At once an ornament and shade from storms;
Adapted each to each, in order'd rows,

1550

The shields to shields, and spears to spears they close. And such the din, as when, with hostile rage,

Conflicting myriads furious battle wage.

1

The clamours fill'd the air, while distant far,
No bird, as yet, perceiv'd that show of war.
But, when, approaching that infested ground,
Their shields they clash'd with a terrific sound; 1570
In clouds on clouds the hateful birds arise,

And scatter far and wide with piercing cries.

As o'er some city when Saturnian Jove

Drives hail in storms, loud pattering from above;
O'er the broad roofs, along the spacious walls,
The shiver'd cloud in deaf'ning volley falls;
The populace survey th' ethereal arch,
And in the blackness see the tempest march;
Each door and avenue with caution bar;
And shun appall'd, that elemental war;
Thus, clouds of feathers on their bucklers fell;
Their bucklers thus the sounding storm repel.

1580

But, why should Phineus send the godlike band,
To such a welcome, and a desert land?-
What gain allures?—what pleasures may redound?
-The sons of Phryxus on that isle they found.-
From Ea, where the rule Eetes bore,

A ship of Colchos seeks their native shore.
A dying father's last commands to keep,

They launch the vessel, and they plough the deep.
To gain the treasures, which a countless hoard, 1591
His mansion held, for his descendants stor❜d.

That day their pinnace near Aretias past;

As Jove from high impell'd the northern blast;
When, moist Arcturus rising in his train,
Brings the chill tempest, and the drifted rain.
By day, the breeze along the forest strays,
And shakes the boughs, and with the foliage plays.
By night, ascending with collected force,
He swells the billows, in his howling course.
A settled gloom the face of Heav'n invades,
And not a star can pierce the brooding shades.

1600