erally dancing in a very boisterous manner, with
shouts of noisy laughter. When she stopped
to question them, they would only laugh the
louder, and make new merriment out of the lone
woman s distress. How unkind of those ugly
satyrs! And once, while crossing a solitary
sheep pasture, she saw a personage named Pan,
seated at the foot of a tall rock, and making
music on a shepherd's flute. He, too, had horns,
and hairy ears, and goat's feet; but, being ac-
quainted with Mother Ceres, he answered her
question as civilly as he knew how, and invited
her to taste some milk and honey out of a wooden
bowl. But neither could Pan tell her what had
become of Proserpina, any better than the rest
of these wild people.

And thus Mother Ceres went wandering about
for nine long days and nights, finding no trace
of Proserpina, unless it were now and then a
withered flower; and these she picked up and
put in her bosom, because she fancied that they
might have fallen from her poor child's hand.
All day she travelled onward through the hot
sun; and at night, again, the flame of the torch
would redden and gleam along the pathway, and

[[239]]

p238 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p239w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p240

v?