land, through which was flowing north a
great river, and he guessed that it was the river Aegyptus, which we now
call the Nile. Beneath him was a town, with many white houses in groves
of palm trees, and with great temples of the gods, built of red stone.
The shoes of swiftness stopped above the wide market-place, and there
Perseus hung poised, till he saw a multitude of men pour out of the door
of a temple.

At their head walked the king, who was like a Greek, and he led a maiden
as white as snow wreathed with flowers and circlets of wool, like the
oxen in Greece, when men sacrifice them to the gods. Behind the king and
the maid came a throng of brown men, first priests and magicians and
players on harps, and women shaking metal rattles that made a wild
mournful noise, while the multitude lamented.

Slowly, while Perseus watched, they passed down to the shore of the
great river, so wide a river as Perseus had never seen. They went to a
steep red rock, like a wall, above the river; at its foot was a flat
shelf of rock--the water just washed over it. Here they stopped, and the
king kissed and embraced the white maiden. They bound her by chains of
bronze to rings of bronze in the rock; they sang a strange hymn; and
then marched back to the town, throwing their mantles over their heads.
There the maiden stood, or rather hung forward supported by the chains.
Perseus floated down, and, the nearer he came, the more beautiful seemed
the white maid, with her soft dark hair falling to her white feet.
Softly he floated down, till his feet were on the ledge of rock. She did
not hear him coming, and when he gently touched her she gave a cry, and
turned on him her large dark eyes, wild and dry, without a tear. 'Is it
a god?' she said, clasping her hands.

'No god, but a mortal man am I, Perseus the slayer of the Gorgon. What
do you here? What cruel men have bound you?'

'I am Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, king of a strange people. The
lot fell on me, of all the maidens in the city, to be offered to the
monster fish that walks on feet, who is their god. Once a year they give
to him a maiden.'

Perseus thereon drew the sword Herpe, and cut the chains of bronze that
bound the girl as if they had been ropes of flax, and she fell at his
feet, covering her eyes with her hands. Then Perseus saw the long reeds
on the further shore of the river waving and stirring and crashing, and
from them came a monstrous fish walking on feet,