"I never saw his like either in heaven

Or upon earth for knavery or craft:Out of the field my cattle yester even,

By the low shore on which the loud sea laughed, He right down to the river-ford had driven;

And mere astonishment would make you daft To see the double kind of footsteps strange He has impressed wherever he did range.

LVIII.

"The cattle's track on the black dust full well
Is evident, as if they went towards
The place from which they came-that asphodel
Meadow, in which I feed my many herds;
His steps were most incomprehensible-

I know not how I can describe in words
Those tracks he could have gone along the sands
Neither upon his feet nor on his hands;—

LIX.

"He must have had some other stranger mode
Of moving on; those vestiges immense,
Far as I traced them on the sandy road,

Seemed like the trail of oak-toppings:-but thence
No mark nor track denoting where they trod
The hard ground gave:-but, working at his fence,
A mortal hedger saw him as he past
To Pylos, with the cows, in fiery haste.

LX.

"I found that in the dark he quietly

Had sacrificed some cows, and before light Had thrown the ashes all dispersedly About the road-then, still as gloomy night, Had crept into his cradle, either eye

Rubbing, and cogitating some new sleight. No eagle could have seen him as he lay Hid in his cavern from the peering day.

LXI.

"I taxed him with the fact, when he averred
Most solemnly that he did neither see
Nor even had in any manner heard

Of my lost cows, whatever things cows be;
Nor could he tell, though offered a reward,

Not even who could tell of them to me." So speaking, Phoebus sate; and Hermes then Addressed the Supreme Lord of Gods and Men:

LXII.

"Great Father, you know clearly beforehand
That all which I shall say to you is sooth;
I am a most veracious person, and
Totally unacquainted with untruth.

At sunrise Phoebus came, but with no band
Of Gods to bear him witness, in great wrath
To my abode, seeking his heifers there,
And saying that I must show him where they are,

LXIII.

"Or he would hurl me down the dark abyss.
I know that every Apollonian limb
Is clothed with speed and might and manliness,
As a green bank with flowers-but unlike him
I was born yesterday, and you may guess
He well knew this when he indulged the whim
Of bullying a poor little new-born thing
That slept, and never thought of cow-driving.

LXIV.

"Am I like a strong fellow who steals kine? Believe me, dearest Father, such you are, This driving of the herds is none of mine; Across my threshold did I wander ne'er, So may I thrive! I reverence the divine

Sun and the Gods, and I love you, and care Even for this hard accuser-who must know I am as innocent as they or you.