,
and they asked every one whom they met if they had seen a white bull
with a girl upon its back. But no one had seen anything of the kind,
and many people thought that Kadmos and Telephassa were silly to ask
such a question, for they said, "Girls do not ride on the backs of
bulls; you can not be telling the truth." So they went on and on,
asking every one, but hearing nothing about her; and as they
journeyed, sometimes they saw the great mountains rising up high into
the sky, with their tops covered with snow, and shining like gold in
the light of the setting sun; sometimes they rested on the bank of a
great broad river, where the large white leaves lay floating and
sleeping on the water, and where the palm trees waved their long
branches above their heads. Sometimes they came to a water-fall, where
the water sparkled brightly as it rushed over the great stones. And
whenever they came to these beautiful places, Kadmos would say to
Telephassa, "How we should have enjoyed staying here if Europa were
with us; but we do not care to stay here now, we must go on looking
for her everywhere." So they went on and on till they came to the sea,
and they wondered how they could get across it, for it was a great
deal wider than any river which they had seen. At last they found a
place where the sea was narrow, and here a boatman took them across in
his boat, just where little Helle had been drowned when she fell off
the back of the ram that was carrying her and her brother away to
Kolchis. So Telephassa and Kadmos crossed over Hellespontos, which
means the Sea of Helle, and they went on and on, over mountains and
hills and rocks, and wild gloomy places, till they came to the sunny
plains of Thessaly. And still they asked every one about Europa, but
they found no one who had seen her. And Kadmos saw that his mother was
getting weak and thin, and that she could not walk now as far and as
quickly as she had done when they had set out from home to look for
his sister. So he asked her to rest for a little while. But Telephassa
said, "We must go on, Kadmos, for if we do, perhaps we may still find
Europa." So they went on, until at last Telephassa felt that she could
not go any further. And she said to Kadmos, "I am very tired, and I do
not think I shall be able to walk any more with you; I must lie down
and go to sleep here, and perhaps, Kadmos, I may not wake again. But
if I die while I am asleep, then you must go on by yourself and look