yes, he
charged furiously upon them. A score of hounds were slain outright;
and Cepheus, of Arcadia, rushing blindly onward, was caught by the
beast, and torn in pieces by his sharp tusks. Then swift-footed
Atalanta, bounding forward, struck the beast a deadly blow with her
spear. He stopped short, and ceased his furious onslaught.

"Terrible were the cries of the wounded creature, as he made a last
charge upon the huntsmen. But Meleager with a skilful sword-thrust
pierced his heart and the beast fell weltering in his gore. Great joy
filled the hearts of the Calydonians when they saw the scourge of their
land laid low and helpless. They quickly flayed the beast, and the
heroes who had shared in the hunt divided the flesh among them; but the
head and the bristly hide they offered to Meleager.

"'Not to me does the prize belong,' he cried, 'but to Atalanta, the
swift-footed huntress. For the first wound--the true death stroke,
indeed--was given by her; and to her, woman though she be, all honor
and the prize must be awarded.'

"With these words, he bore the grinning head and the bristly hide to
the young huntress, and laid them at her feet. Then his uncles, the
brothers of Queen Althea, rushed angrily forward, saying that no woman
should ever bear a prize away from them; and they seized the hide, and
would have taken it away, had not Meleager forbidden them. Yet they
would not loose their hold upon the prize, but drew their swords, and
wrathfully threatened Meleager's life.

"The hero's heart grew hot within him, and he shrank not from the
affray. Long and fearful was the struggle--uncles against nephew; but
in the end the brothers of Althea lay bleeding upon the ground, while
the victor brought again the boar's hide, and laid it the second time
at Atalanta's feet. The fair huntress took the prize, and carried it
away with her to deck her father's hall in the pleasant Arcadian land.
And the heroes, when they had feasted nine other days with King Oineus,
betook themselves to their own homes.

"But the hearts of the Acarnanian hunters were bitter toward Meleager,
because no part of the wild boar was awarded to them. They called
their chiefs around them, and all their brave men, and made war upon
King Oineus and Meleager. Many battles did they fight round Calydon;
yet so long as Meleager led his warriors to the fray, the Acarnanians
fared but ill.

"Then Queen Althea, filled with grief for her brothers' u