employed in
it. For, at one time, I used to drag the nets that swept up the fish;
at another time, seated on a rock, I managed the line with the rod. The
shore was adjacent to a verdant meadow, one part of which was surrounded
with water, the other with grass, which, neither the horned heifers had
hurt with their browsing, nor had you, ye harmless sheep, nor {you}, ye
shaggy goats, {ever} cropped it. No industrious bee took {thence} the
collected blossoms, no festive garlands were gathered thence for the
head; and no mower's hands had ever cut it. I was the first to be seated
on that turf, while I was drying the dripping nets. And that I might
count in their order the fish that I had taken; I laid out those upon it
which either chance had driven to my nets, or their own credulity to my
barbed hooks.

"The thing is like a fiction (but of what use is it to me to coin
fictions?); on touching the grass my prey began to move, and to shift
their sides, and to skip about on the land, as though in the sea. And
while I both paused and wondered, the whole batch flew off to the waves,
and left behind their new master and the shore. I was amazed, and, in
doubt for a long time, I considered what could be the cause; whether
some Divinity had done this, or whether the juice of {some} herb. 'And
yet,' said I, 'what herb has these properties?' and with my hand I
plucked the grass, and I chewed it, {so} plucked, with my teeth. Hardly
had my throat well swallowed the unknown juices, when I suddenly felt my
entrails inwardly throb, and my mind taken possession of by the passions
of another nature. Nor could I stay in {that} place; and I exclaimed,
'Farewell, land, never more to be revisited;' and plunged my body
beneath the deep. The Gods of the sea vouchsafed me, on being received
by them, kindred honours, and they entreated Oceanus and Tethys to take
away from me whatever mortality I bore. By them was I purified; and a
charm being repeated over me nine times, that washes away {all} guilt,
I was commanded to put my breast beneath a hundred streams.

"There was no delay; rivers issuing from different springs, and whole
seas, were poured over my head. Thus far I can relate to thee what
happened worthy to be related, and thus far do I remember; but my
understanding was not conscious of the rest. When it returned {to me},
I found myself different throughout all my body from what I was before,
and not the same in mind. Then, for the first tim