has {now} contracted thirst, and no streams have washed
her mouth, when by chance she beholds a cottage covered with thatch, and
knocks at its humble door, upon which an old woman[56] comes out and
sees the Goddess, and gives her, asking for water, a sweet drink which
she has lately distilled[57] from parched pearled barley. While she is
drinking it {thus} presented, a boy[58] of impudent countenance and
bold, stands before the Goddess, and laughs, and calls her greedy. She
is offended; and a part being not yet quaffed, the Goddess sprinkles
him, as he is {thus} talking, with the barley mixed with the liquor.

"His face contracts the stains, and he bears legs where just now he was
bearing arms; a tail is added to his changed limbs; and he is contracted
into a diminutive form, that no great power of doing injury may exist;
his size is less than {that of} a small lizard. He flies from the old
woman, astounded and weeping, and trying to touch the monstrosity; and
he seeks a lurking place, and has a name suited to his color, having his
body speckled with various spots."

[Footnote 46: _Henna._--Ver. 385. Henna, or Enna, was a city so
exactly situated in the middle of Sicily that it was called the
navel of that island. The worship of Ceres there was so highly
esteemed, that ancient writers remarked, that you might easily
take the whole place for one vast temple of that Goddess, and all
the inhabitants for her priests. Proserpine is said by many
authors, besides Ovid, to have been carried away by Pluto in the
vicinity of Henna; though some writers say that it took place in
Attica, and others again in Asia, while the Hymn of Orpheus
mentions the western coast of Spain. Cicero describes this spot in
his Oration against Verres: his words are, 'It is said that
Libera, who is the Deity that we call Proserpine, was carried away
from the Grove of Enna. Enna, where these events took place to
which I now refer, is in a lofty and exposed situation; but on the
summit the ground presents a level surface, and there are springs
of everflowing water. The spot is entirely cut off and separated
from all [ordinary] means of approach. Around it are many lakes
and groves, and flowers in bloom at all seasons of the year; so
that the very spot seems to portray the rape of the damsel, with
which story, from our very infancy, we have been familiar. Close
by, there i