t like a trumpet from
off the hills: "You are pirates, you are robbers! If you dare land here,
you die."

Then the heroes cried: "We are no pirates. We are all good men and true;
and all we ask is food and water"; but the giant cried the more--

"You are robbers, you are pirates all; I know you; and if you land, you
shall die the death."

Then he waved his arms again as a signal, and they saw the people flying
inland, driving their flocks before them, while a great flame arose
among the hills. Then the giant ran up a valley and vanished; and the
heroes lay on their oars in fear.

But Medeia stood watching all, from under her steep black brows, with a
cunning smile upon her lips, and a cunning plot within her heart. At
last she spoke; "I know this giant. I heard of him in the East.
Hephaistos the Fire King made him, in his forge in AEtna beneath the
earth, and called him Talus, and gave him to Minos for a servant, to
guard the coast of Crete. Thrice a day he walks round the island, and
never stops to sleep; and if strangers land he leaps into his furnace,
which flames there among the hills; and when he is red hot he rushes on
them, and burns them in his brazen hands."

Then all the heroes cried, "What shall we do, wise Medeia? We must have
water, or we die of thirst. Flesh and blood we can face fairly; but who
can face this red-hot brass?"

"I can face red-hot brass, if the tale I hear be true. For they say
that he has but one vein in all his body, filled with liquid fire; and
that this vein is closed with a nail; but I know not where that nail is
placed. But if I can get it once into these hands, you shall water your
ship here in peace."

Then she bade them put her on shore, and row off again, and wait what
would befall.

And the heroes obeyed her unwillingly; for they were ashamed to leave
her so alone; but Jason said, "She is dearer to me than to any of you,
yet I will trust her freely on shore; she has more plots than we can
dream of, in the windings of that fair and cunning head."

So they left the witch maiden on the shore; and she stood there in her
beauty all alone, till the giant strode back red hot from head to heel,
while the grass hissed and smoked beneath his tread.

And when he saw the maiden alone, he stopped; and she looked boldly up
into his face without moving, and began her magic song:

"Life is short, though life is sweet; and even men of brass and fire
must die. The brass must rust, the