kine making backward to the mead of asphodel; but this child intractable
fared neither on hands nor feet, through the sandy land, but this other
strange craft had he, to tread the paths as if shod on with oaken shoots.
{153} While he drove the kine through a land of sand, right plain to
discern were all the tracks in the dust, but when he had crossed the
great tract of sand, straightway on hard ground his traces and those of
the kine were ill to discern. But a mortal man beheld him, driving
straight to Pylos the cattle broad of brow. Now when he had stalled the
kine in quiet, and confused his tracks on either side the way, he lay
dark as night in his cradle, in the dusk of a shadowy cave. The keenest
eagle could not have spied him, and much he rubbed his eyes, with crafty
purpose, and bluntly spake his word:

"I saw not, I heard not aught, nor learned another's tale; nor tidings
could I give, nor win reward of tidings."

Therewith Phoebus Apollo sat him down, but another tale did Hermes tell,
among the Immortals, addressing Cronion, the master of all Gods:

"Father Zeus, verily the truth will I tell thee: for true am I, nor know
the way of falsehood. To-day at sunrise came Apollo to our house,
seeking his shambling kine. No witnesses of the Gods brought he, nor no
Gods who had seen the fact. But he bade me declare the thing under
duress, threatening oft to cast me into wide Tartarus, for he wears the
tender flower of glorious youth, but I was born but yesterday, as well
himself doth know, and in naught am I like a stalwart lifter of kine.
Believe, for thou givest thyself out to be my father, that may I never be
well if I drove home the kine, nay, or crossed the threshold. This I say
for sooth! The Sun I greatly revere, and other gods, and Thee I love,
and _him_ I dread. Nay, thyself knowest that I am not to blame; and
thereto I will add a great oath: by these fair-wrought porches of the
Gods I am guiltless, and one day yet I shall avenge me on him for this
pitiless accusation, mighty as he is; but do thou aid the younger!"

So spake Cyllenian Argus-bane, and winked, with his wrapping on his arm:
he did not cast it down. But Zeus laughed aloud at the sight of his evil-
witted child, so well and wittily he pled denial about the kine. Then
bade he them both be of one mind, and so seek the cattle, with Hermes as
guide to lead the way, and show without guile where he had hidden the
sturdy kine. The Son of Cron