ful gradual turn'd, he bends,
And seeks the shore; then playful in the waves
Just dips his feet;--thence plunging deep, he swims
Through midmost ocean with his ravish'd prize.
Trembling the nymph beholds the lessening shore;----
Firm grasps one hand his horn; upon his back,
Secure the other resting: to the wind,
Her fluttering garments floating as she sails.

*The Third Book.*

Unsuccessful search of Cadmus for his sister. Death of his
companions by the dragon. Overthrow of the dragon, and production
of armed men from his teeth. Thebes. Actaeon devoured by his
hounds. Semele destroyed by lightening, and the birth of Bacchus.
The prophet Tiresias. Echo: and the transformation of Narcissus.
Impiety of Pentheus. Change of the Tyrrhenian sailors to
dolphins. Massacre of Pentheus.

THE *Third Book* OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.

And now the god, his bestial form resign'd,
Shone in his form celestial as he gain'd
The Cretan shore. Meantime, the theft unknown,
Mourn'd her sad sire, and Cadmus sent to seek
The ravish'd maid; stern threatening as he went,
Perpetual exile if his searching fail'd:--
Parental love and cruelty combin'd!
All earth explor'd in vain, (for who shall find
The amorous thefts of Jove?) the exile shuns
His father's anger, and paternal soil.
A suppliant bends before Apollo's shrine,
To ask his aid;--what region he should chuse
To fix his habitation. Phoebus thus;--
"A cow, whose neck the yoke has never prest,
"Strange to the crooked plough, shall meet thy steps,
"Lone in the desert fields: the way she leads
"Chuse thou,--rand where upon the grass she rests,
"Erect thy walls;--Boeotia call the place."
Scarce had the cave Castalian Cadmus left,
When he an heifer, gently pacing, spy'd
Untended; one whose neck no mark betray'd
Of galling service. Closely treads the youth,
Slow moving in her footsteps, and adores
In silence Phoebus, leader of his way.
Now had he pass'd the Cephisidian stream,
And meads of Panope, when stay'd the beast;
Her broad front lifted to the sky; reverse
Her lofty horns reclining, shook the air
With lowings loud; back then her face she bent,
And saw the comrades following close behind:
Down low she couch'd, and press'd the yielding grass,
Glad thanks to Phoebus, Cadmus gave, and kiss'd
The foreign soil;--the unknown hills, and land
Saluted. Then a