reply'd.--
"Athens the fam'd, my country; and my name
"Triptolemus: but neither o'er the main,
"Borne in a ship, nor travelling slow by land,
"I hither came; my path was through the air.
"I bring the gift of Ceres; scatter'd wide
"Through all your spacious fields, quickly restor'd
"In fruitful crops the wholesome food will spring.
"The barbarous monarch, envious he should bear
"So great a blessing, takes him for his guest,
"And when with sleep weigh'd down attacks him. Rais'd
"To pierce his bosom, was the sword;--just then
"The wretch, by Ceres, to a lynx was turn'd.
"Then mounts again the youth, and through the air
"Bids him once more the sacred dragons steer.

"Our chosen champion ended here her lays,
"And all the nymphs unanimous, exclaim'd;--
"The Heliconian goddesses have gain'd.
"Vanquish'd, the others rail'd. When she resum'd:--
"Is not your punishment enough deserv'd?
"Foil'd in the contest, must you swell your crime,
"With base revilings? Patient now no more,
"To punish we begin; what anger bids,
"We now perform.--Loud laugh'd the scornful maids,
"Our threatening words despis'd, and strove to speak,
"And clapp'd with outcries menacing, their hands.
"When from their fingers shooting plumes they spy;
"And feathers shade their arms; her sister's face,
"Each sees to harden in an horny beak;
"To beat their bosoms trying with rais'd arms,
"In air suspended, on those arms they move;
"The new-shap'd birds the sylvan tribes increase:
"Magpies, the scandal of the grove. Thus chang'd,
"Their former eloquence they still maintain,
"In hoarse garrulity, and empty noise."

*The Sixth Book.*

Trial of skill betwixt Pallas and Arachne. Transformation of
Arachne to a spider. Pride of Niobe. Her children slain by Apollo
and Diana. Her change to marble. The Lycian peasants changed to
frogs. Fate of Marsyas. Pelops. Story of Tereus, Procne, and
Philomela. Their change to birds. Boreas and Orithyia. Birth of
Zethes and Calais.

THE *Sixth Book* OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.

Minerva pleas'd attention to the muse,
While thus she spoke afforded; prais'd the song,
And prais'd the just resentment of the maids.
Then to herself;--"the vengeance others take,
"Merely to praise were mean. I too should claim
"Like praise, for like revenge; nor longer bear
"My power contemn'd, by who unpunish'd live."