a laugh; being greatly amused, wicked king that
he was, to find how readily the young man fell into the snare. The
news quickly spread abroad that Perseus had undertaken to cut off the
head of Medusa with the snaky locks. Everybody was rejoiced; for most
of the inhabitants of the island were as wicked as the king himself,
and would have liked nothing better than to see some enormous mischief
happen to Danae and her son. The only good man in this unfortunate
island of Seriphus appears to have been the fisherman. As Perseus
walked along, therefore, the people pointed after him, and made
mouths, and winked to one another, and ridiculed him as loudly as they
dared.

"Ho, ho!" cried they; "Medusa's snakes will sting him soundly!"

Now, there were three Gorgons alive at that period; and they were the
most strange and terrible monsters that had ever been since the world
was made, or that have been seen in after days, or that are likely to
be seen in all time to come. I hardly know what sort of creature or
hobgoblin to call them. They were three sisters, and seem to have
borne some distant resemblance to women, but were really a very
frightful and mischievous species of dragon. It is, indeed, difficult
to imagine what hideous beings these three sisters were. Why, instead
of locks of hair, if you can believe me, they had each of them a
hundred enormous snakes growing on their heads, all alive, twisting,
wriggling, curling, and thrusting out their venomous tongues, with
forked stings at the end! The teeth of the Gorgons were terribly long
tusks; their hands were made of brass; and their bodies were all over
scales, which, if not iron, were something as hard and impenetrable.
They had wings, too, and exceedingly splendid ones, I can assure you;
for every feather in them was pure, bright, glittering, burnished
gold, and they looked very dazzlingly, no doubt, when the Gorgons were
flying about in the sunshine.

But when people happened to catch a glimpse of their glittering
brightness, aloft in the air, they seldom stopped to gaze, but ran and
hid themselves as speedily as they could. You will think, perhaps,
that they were afraid of being stung by the serpents that served the
Gorgons instead of hair,--or of having their heads bitten off by their
ugly tusks,--or of being torn all to pieces by their brazen claws.
Well, to be sure, these were some of the dangers, but by no means the
greatest, nor the most difficult to avoid. For t