purpose. He had so early a relish for the
Eastern way of writing, that even at this time he composed (in imitation
of it) 'A Thousand and One Arabian Tales,' and also the 'Persian Tales,'
which have been since translated into several languages, and lately into
our own with particular elegance by Mr. Ambrose Philips. In this work of
his childhood he was not a little assisted by the historical traditions
of his nurse.

THE ARGONAUTIC LEGEND

The legend of the Argonauts relates to the story of a band of heroes who
sailed from Thessaly to AEa, the region of the Sun-god on the remotest
shore of the Black Sea, in quest of a Golden Fleece. The ship Argo bore
the heroes, under the command of Jason, to whom the task had been
assigned by his uncle Pelias. Pelias was the usurper of his nephew's
throne; and for Jason, on his coming to man's estate, he devised the
perilous adventure of fetching the golden fleece of the Speaking Ram
which many years before had carried Phrixus to AEa, or Colchis. Fifty of
the most distinguished Grecian heroes came to Jason's aid, while Argus,
the son of Phrixus, under the guidance of Athena, built the ship,
inserting in the prow, for prophetic advice and furtherance, a piece of
the famous talking oak of Dodona. Tiphys was the steersman, and Orpheus
joined the crew to enliven the weariness of their sea-life with
his harp.

The heroes came first to Lemnos, where the women had risen in revolt and
slain fathers, brothers, and husbands. Here the voyagers lingered almost
a year; but at last, having taken leave, they came to the southern coast
of Propontis, where the Doliones dwelt under King Cyzicus. Their kind
entertainment among this people was marred by ill-fate; for having
weighed anchor in the night, they were driven back by a storm, and being
mistaken for foes, were fiercely attacked. Cyzicus himself fell by the
hand of Jason. They next touched at the country of the Bebrycians, where
the hero Pollux overcame the king in a boxing-match and bound him to a
tree; and thence to Salmydessus, to consult the soothsayer Phineus. In
gratitude for their freeing him from the Harpies, who, as often as his
table was set, descended out of the clouds upon his food and defiled it,
the prophet directed them safe to Colchis. The heroes rowing with might,
thus passed the Symplegades, two cliffs which opened and shut with such
swift violence that a bird could scarce fly through the passage. The
rocks were held