told why it was that Bellerophon had
undertaken to catch the winged horse. And we shall find no better
opportunity to speak about this matter than while he is waiting for
Pegasus to appear.

If I were to relate the whole of Bellerophon's previous adventures, they
might easily grow into a very long story. It will be quite enough to
say, that, in a certain country of Asia, a terrible monster, called a
Chimaera, had made its appearance, and was doing more mischief than
could be talked about between now and sunset. According to the best
accounts which I have been able to obtain, this Chimaera was nearly, if
not quite, the ugliest and most poisonous creature, and the strangest
and unaccountablest, and the hardest to fight with, and the most
difficult to run away from, that ever came out of the earth's inside.
It had a tail like a boa-constrictor; its body was like I do not care
what; and it had three separate heads, one of which was a lion's, the
second a goat's, and the third an abominably great snake's. And a hot
blast of fire came flaming out of each of its three mouths! Being an
earthly monster, I doubt whether it had any wings; but, wings or no, it
ran like a goat and a lion, and wriggled along like a serpent, and thus
contrived to make about as much speed as all three together.

Oh, the mischief, and mischief, and mischief, that this naughty creature
did! With its flaming breath, it could set a forest on fire, or burn up
a field of grain, or, for that matter, a village, with all its fences
and houses. It laid waste the whole country round about, and used to
eat up people and animals alive, and cook them afterwards in the burning
oven of its stomach. Mercy on us, little children, I hope neither you
nor I will ever happen to meet a Chimaera!

While the hateful beast (if a beast we can anywise call it) was doing
all these horrible things, it so chanced that Bellerophon came to that
part of the world, on a visit to the king. The king's name was Iobates,
and Lycia was the country which he ruled over. Bellerophon was one of
the bravest youths in the world, and desired nothing so much as to do
some valiant and beneficent deed, such as would make all mankind admire
and love him. In those days, the only way for a young man to
distinguish himself was by fighting battles, either with the enemies of
his country, or with wicked giants, or with troublesome dragons, or with
wild beasts, when he could find nothing more da