hen
rejoined his comrades, and told them what had passed between the
princess and himself, and warned them to be in readiness in case there
might be need of their help.

At the appointed hour he met the beautiful Medea on the marble steps of
the king's palace. She gave him a basket, in which were the dragon's
teeth, just as they had been pulled out of the monster's jaws by Cadmus
long ago. Medea then led Jason down the palace steps and through the
silent streets of the city and into the royal pasture-ground, where the
two brazen-footed bulls were kept. It was a starry night, with a bright
gleam along the eastern edge of the sky, where the moon was soon going
to show herself. After entering the pasture the princess paused and
looked around.

"There they are," said she, "reposing themselves and chewing their fiery
cuds in that furthest corner of the field. It will be excellent sport, I
assure you, when they catch a glimpse of your figure. My father and all
his court delight in nothing so much as to see a stranger trying to yoke
them in order to come at the Golden Fleece. It makes a holiday in
Colchis whenever such a thing happens. For my part, I enjoy it
immensely. You cannot imagine in what a mere twinkling of an eye their
hot breath shrivels a young man into a black cinder."

"Are you sure, beautiful Medea," asked Jason, "quite sure, that the
unguent in the gold box will prove a remedy against those terrible
burns?"

"If you doubt, if you are in the least afraid," said the princess,
looking him in the face by the dim starlight, "you had better never have
been born than go a step nigher to the bulls."

But Jason had set his heart steadfastly on getting the Golden Fleece,
and I positively doubt whether he would have gone back without it even
had he been certain of finding himself turned into a red-hot cinder, or
a handful of white ashes the instant he made a step further. He
therefore let go Medea's hand and walked boldly forward in the
direction whither she had pointed. At some distance before him he
perceived four streams of fiery vapor, regularly appearing and again
vanishing after dimly lighting up the surrounding obscurity. These, you
will understand, were caused by the breath of the brazen bulls, which
was quietly stealing out of their four nostrils as they lay chewing
their cuds.

At the first two or three steps which Jason made the four fiery streams
appeared to gush out somewhat more plentifully, for the