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Orpheus on Gems

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ORPHEUS ON GEMS.
387
Awed by the spell they fear their fangs to use. Though with bare feet their scaly coils thou bruise. With wonder filled, at thine approach they fly, Nor dare to face the terrors of thine eye ; E'en those at first prepared at thee to leap, Fall to the ground, and tamely backward creep : The potent spell their headlong fury checks, They stop and elevate their gilded necks ; And to their lord in tame submission drawn, With forked tongues, like dogs they on thee fawn. The hunter-boy, confiding in its aid, In Ida's thickets oft securely laid, Euphorbus 'mid the speckled dragon's brood, Uninjured slept, though thirsting for men's blood. For to his prayer the sacred stone 1 gave,
430 And ne'er a serpent dared his glance to brave. Brave Melanippus loved his beauty bright, And in his presence found his sole delight ; My cousin he, himself of graceful mould, But yet his worth his beauty's praise out-told. Following the fair-haired youth with constant love, Never without him in the chase he'd rove ; But o'er the mountains still with train and hound, He tracked the game in many a devious round : Full often longed great Icetaon's son, To follow his loved comrade all alone. Him oft his father checked with anxious care,
440 Dreading the perils of the sylvan war, And often royal Priam would detain The ardent youth, but still had tried in vain ; For who would live deserted at the court, And leave Euphorbus to his woodland sport ? Yet soon a serpent checked the impetuous youth, Piercing his ankle with envenomed tooth. The hero, conscious of the deadly wound, Keener than death the pain of parting found ; Prone at my knees for aid to me he prays ; I pity, and the wounded hunter raise, And bid him take, to finest powder ground, This stone, and sprinkle on the burning wound. Instant the deadly venom quits his veins,
450 And the glad youth his former strength regains.
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