and
climbing the far off hills to the forests of pine and holly; and the
olive orchards planted symmetrically in the red soil, forming colonnades
of twisted branches with capitals of silvery leafage. The sight of this
splendid landscape moved him, recalling to mind memories of his
childhood. The valley was as beautiful as that of Mother Greece; here he
would remain if the gods did not urge him forward again on his restless
pilgrimage about the world.

He walked almost an hour, keeping ever before him the red mountain with
the city at its base, and on its summit the innumerable constructions of
the Acropolis. At a turn of the road he saw the people stop before a
shrine--a long altar of stone, upon which an enormous serpent of blue
marble extended its scaly rings. The rustics deposited flowers and
earthen cups of milk before the motionless reptile, which with head
lifted and venomous jaws open seemed to threaten them. In this place
the unfortunate Zacynthus had been bitten by the serpent as he was
returning to Greece with the red cattle stolen from Geryon. His body was
burned on the Acropolis, and the city grew around the spot. The simple
people worshipped the reptile as one of the founders of their _patria_,
and with affectionate words they surrounded it with offerings, which
mysteriously disappeared, causing many to believe that it came to life
in the dark, and they imagined that they heard its frightful hissing for
great distances on stormy nights.

As Actaeon drew nearer to Saguntum he saw the tombs which rose on both
sides of the road, attracting the attention of the traveler by their
inscriptions. Behind these extended gardens enclosed by thick hedges
over which peeped the branches of fruit trees belonging to the
country-houses of the rich. Some slave women were watching nude children
of pronounced Grecian type who played and wrestled. A corpulent old man,
wrapped in a purple chlamys, stood in a garden gateway observing the
passing of the flood of wretched people with the cold arrogance of a
merchant newly risen to affluence. On the terrace of a villa Actaeon
fancied that he saw a gold-dyed coiffure in Athenian style interlaced
with red ribbons, and near it a waving fan of multicolored feathers of
Asiatic birds. These were the villas of the rich patricians of Saguntum
who had retired from business.

Upon nearing the river, the Baetis-Perkes, which divided the city from
the champaign, the Greek noticed that he wa