nce
and revel. When they saw Orpheus they set up a shout of derision.
"See," they cried, "the wretched singer who mocks at women and will
have no bride but the dead. Come, let us kill him, and show that no
man shall despise us unpunished."

With these words they began to throw wands and stones at him, but even
the lifeless objects were softened by the music, and fell harmlessly
to the ground. Then the women raised a wild shout and made such a
clamor with trumpets and cymbals, that the soft tones of the harp were
drowned by the noise. Now at last the shots took effect, and in their
fury the women fell upon him, dealing blow on blow. Orpheus fell
lifeless to the ground.

But he was not to die unwept. The little birds of the forest mourned
for him, even the stony rocks wept, the trees shed their leaves with
grief, and the dryads and naiads tore their hair and put on the garb
of sorrow. Only the pitiless revelers knew no remorse. They seized the
singer's head and threw it with his lyre into the river Hebrus. There
it floated down stream and, strange to tell, the chords gave forth a
lament, and the lifeless tongue uttered words. "Eurydice, Eurydice,"
it cried, till head and lyre were carried down to the sea, and on
to Lesbos, the isle of sweet song, where in after years Alcaeus and
Sappho tuned afresh the lyre of Orpheus.

But the shade of the dead singer went down to Hades, and found
entrance at last. Thus Orpheus and Eurydice were re-united, and won in
death the bliss that was denied them in life.

MYTHS OF SCANDINAVIA

BALDUR

ADAPTED FROM A, AND E. KEARY'S VERSION

I

THE DREAM

Upon a summer's afternoon it happened that Baldur the Bright and Bold,
beloved of men and the gods, found himself alone in his palace of
Broadblink. Thor was walking among the valleys, his brow heavy
with summer heat; Frey and Gerda sported on still waters in their
cloud-leaf ship; Odin, for once, slept on the top of Air Throne; a
noon-day stillness pervaded the whole earth; and Baldur in Broadblink,
most sunlit of palaces, dreamed a dream.

The dream of Baldur was troubled. He knew not whence nor why; but when
he awoke he found that a new and weighty care was within him. It was
so heavy that Baldur could scarcely carry it, and yet he pressed it
closely to his heart and said, "Lie there, and do not fall on any one
but me." Then he rose up and walked out from the splendor of his
hall, that he might seek his o