olchians
gazed upon him. All round him, as from a furnace, there came smoke and
fire.

The bulls roared mightily. Grasping the horns of the bull that was upon
his right hand, Jason dragged him until he had brought him beside the
yoke of bronze. Striking the brazen knees of the bull suddenly with his
foot he forced him down. Then he smote the other bull as it rushed upon
him, and it too he forced down upon its knees.

Castor and Polydeuces held the yoke to him. Jason bound it upon the
necks of the bulls. He fastened the plow to the yoke. Then he took his
shield and set it upon his back, and grasping the handles of the plow
he started to make the furrow.

With his long spear he drove the bulls before him as with a goad.
Terribly they raged, furiously they breathed out fire. Beside Jason
Theseus went holding the helmet that held the dragon's teeth. The hard
ground was torn up by the plow of adamant, and the clods groaned as
they were cast up. Jason flung the teeth between the open sods, often
turning his head in fear that the deadly crop of the Earth-born Men
were rising behind him.

By the time that a third of the day was finished the field of Ares had
been plowed and sown. As yet the furrows were free of the Earth-born
Men. Jason went down to the river and filled his helmet full of water
and drank deeply. And his knees that were stiffened with the plowing he
bent until they were made supple again.

He saw the field rising into mounds. It seemed that there were graves
all over the field of Ares. Then he saw spears and shields and helmets
rising up out of the earth. Then armed warriors sprang up, a fierce
battle cry upon their lips.

Jason remembered the counsel of Medea. He raised a boulder that four
men could hardly raise and with arms hardened by the plowing he cast
it. The Colchians shouted to see such a stone cast by the hands of one
man. Right into the middle of the Earth-born Men the stone came. They
leaped upon it like hounds, striking at one another as they came
together. Shield crashed on shield, spear rang upon spear as they
struck at each other. The Earth-born Men, as fast as they arose, went
down before the weapons in the hands of their brethren.

Jason rushed upon them, his sword in his hand. He slew some that had
risen out of the earth only as far as the shoulders; he slew others
whose feet were still in the earth; he slew others who were ready to
spring upon him. Soon all the Earth-born Men were sl