simply crav'd)
"A pleasing draught where roasted grain had boil'd.
"Swallowing the gift presented, rudely came
"A brazen-fronted boy, and facing stood:
"Then laughing mock'd to see her greedy drink.
"Angry grew Ceres, all the offer'd draught,
"Yet unconsum'd, she drench'd him as he jeer'd,
"With barley mixt with liquid: straight his face
"The spots imbib'd; and what but now as arms
"He bore, as legs he carries; to his limbs
"Thus chang'd, a tail is added; shrunk in size,
"Small is his power to harm; shorter he seems
"Than the small lizard. Swift away he fled
"(As, wondering, weeping, try'd the dame to clasp
"His changing form) and gain'd a sheltering hole.
"Well suits his star-like skin the name he bears.

"Long were the tale to tell, what tracts of land
"What tracts of sea, the wandering goddess pass'd.
"Earth now no spot unsearch'd affording, back
"To Sicily she turns; with close research
"Each part exploring, till at length she comes
"To Cyane; who all the tale had told
"If still unchang'd: much as she wish'd to speak
"Nor lips, nor tongue can aid her; nought remains
"Speech to afford. Yet plain a sign she gives,
"The zone of Proserpine upon her waves
"Light floating; in the sacred stream it fell;--
"Dropt as she pass'd the place. Well Ceres knew
"The sight, and then--as then her loss first known,
"Tore her dishevell'd tresses, beat her breast
"With blows on blows redoubled. Still unknown
"The spot that holds her, every part of earth
"Blaming, ungrateful, worthless of her fruits.
"But chief Trinacria, in whose isle was found
"The vestige of her loss. For this she breaks
"With furious hand the glebe up-turning plough:
"And angry, to an equal death she dooms,
"The tiller and his ox: forbids the fields
"Back to return th' entrusted grain; the seeds
"All rotting. Now that fertile land, renown'd
"Through the wide earth, lies useless; all the grain
"Dies in the earliest shoots: now scorching rays;
"Now floods of rain destroy it: noxious stars
"Now harm; now blighting winds: and hungry birds
"The scatter'd seed devour: the darnel springs,
"The thistle, and the knot-grass thick, which choke
"The sprouting wheat, and make the harvest void.

"Now Arethusa from th' Eleian waves
"Exalts her head; her dropping tresses flung
"Back from her forehead, parting shade her ears:
"And thus;--O goddess! mother of the mai