ing Minos a most wonderful palace with floors of
marble and pillars of granite; and in the palace he set up golden
statues which had tongues and could talk; and for splendor and beauty
there was no other building in all the wide earth that could be compared
with it.

There lived in those days among the hills of Crete a terrible monster
called the Minotaur, the like of which has never been seen from that
time until now. This creature, it was said, had the body of a man, but
the face and head of a wild bull and the fierce nature of a mountain
lion. The people of Crete would not have killed him if they could; for
they thought that the Mighty Folk who lived with Jupiter on the mountain
top had sent him among them, and that these beings would be angry if any
one should take his life. He was the pest and terror of all the land.
Where he was least expected, there he was sure to be; and almost every
day some man, woman, or child was caught and devoured by him.

"You have done so many wonderful things," said the king to Daedalus,
"can you not do something to rid the land of this Minotaur?"

"Shall I kill him?" asked Daedalus.

"Ah, no!" said the king. "That would only bring greater misfortunes upon
us."

"I will build a house for him then," said Daedalus, "and you can keep
him in it as a prisoner."

"But he may pine away and die if he is penned up in prison," said the
king.

"He shall have plenty of room to roam about," said Daedalus; "and if you
will only now and then feed one of your enemies to him, I promise you
that he shall live and thrive."

So the wonderful artisan brought together his workmen, and they built a
marvelous house with so many rooms in it and so many winding ways that
no one who went far into it could ever find his way out again; and
Daedalus called it the Labyrinth, and cunningly persuaded the Minotaur
to go inside of it. The monster soon lost his way among the winding
passages, but the sound of his terrible bellowings could be heard day
and night as he wandered back and forth vainly trying to find some place
to escape.

III. ICARUS.

Not long after this it happened that Daedalus was guilty of a deed which
angered the king very greatly; and had not Minos wished him to build
other buildings for him, he would have put him to death and no doubt
have served him right.

"Hitherto," said the king, "I have honored you for your skill and
rewarded you for your labor. But now you shall be my sla