l 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 two
brazen bulls had heard his foot-tramp and were lifting up their hot
noses to snuff the air. He went a little further, and by the way in
which the red vapor now spouted forth he judged that the creatures had
got upon their feet. Now he could see glowing sparks and vivid jets of
flame. At the next step each of the bulls made the pasture echo with a
terrible roar, while the burning breath which they thus belched forth
lit up the whole field with a momentary flash.

One other stride did bold Jason make; and suddenly, as a streak of
lightning, on came these fiery animals, roaring like thunder and
sending out sheets of white flame, which so kindled up the scene that
the young man could discern every object more distinctly than by
daylight. Most distinctly of all he saw the two horrible creatures
galloping right down upon him, their brazen hoofs rattling and ringing
over the ground and their tails sticking up stiffly into the air, as
has always been the fashion with angry bulls. Their breath scorched
the herbage before them. So intensely hot it was, indeed, that it
caught a dry tree under which Jason was now standing and set it all in
a light blaze. But as for Jason himself (thanks to Medea's enchanted
ointment), the white flame curled around his body without injuring him
a jot more than if he had been made of asbestos.

Greatly encouraged at finding himself not yet turned into a cinder,
the young man awaited the attack of the bulls. Just as the brazen
brutes fancied themselves sure of tossing him into the air he caught
one of them by the horn and the other by his screwed-up tail and held
them in a grip like that of an iron vise, one with his right hand, the
other with his left. Well, he must have been wonderfully strong in his
arms, to be sure! But the secret of the matter was that the brazen
bulls were enchanted creatures an