Or fuff'ring not their yellow beards to rear,
Hetramples down the spikes,and intercepts the year.
In vain the barns expect their promis'd load,
Nor barns at home, nor reeks are heap'd abroad:
In vain the hinds the threshing-floor prepare,
And exercise their flails in empty air.
With olives ever green the ground is ftrow'd,
And grapes ungather'd fhed their gen'rous blood.
Amid the fold he rages, nor the sheep
Their fhepherds, nor the grooms their bulls can keep.
From fields to walls the frighted rabble run, Nor think themselves fecure within the town: Till Meleagrus, and his chofen crew,
Contemn the danger, and the praise pursue.
Fair Leda's twins, (in time to ftars decreed)
One fought on foot, one curb'd the fiery fteed;
Then iffued forth fam'd Jafon after these,
Who mann'd the foremost ship that fail'd the feas;
Then Thefeus join'd with bold Pirithous came :
A fingle concord in a double name :
The Theftian fons, Idas who fwiftly ran,
And Ceneus, once a woman, now a man.
Lynceus, with eagle's eyes, and lion's heart;
Leucippus, with his never-erring dart ;
Acaftus, Phileus, Phænix, Telamon,
Echion, Lelex, and Eurytion,
Achilles' father, and great Phocus' fon;
Dryas the fierce, and Hippafus the strong;
With twice old Iolas, and Neftor then but young.
Laertes active, and Ancæus bold;
Mopfus the fage, who future things foretold;
And t'other feer yet by his wife unfold.
A thousand others of immortal fame;
Among the rest fair Atalanta came,
Grace of the woods: a diamond buckle bound
Herveft behind, that elfe had flow'd upon the ground,
And fhew'd her bufkin'd legs; her head was bare,
But for her native ornament of hair;
Which in a fimple knot was ty'd above,
Sweet negligence, unheeded bait of love!
Her founding quiver on her shoulder ty'd,
One hand a dart, and one a bow fupply'd.
Such was her face, as in a nymph display'd
A fair fierce boy, or in a boy betray'd
The blushing beauties of a modest maid.
The Caledonian chief at once the dame
Beheld, at once his heart receiv'd the flame,
With heav'ns averse. O happy youth, he cry'd;
For whom thy fates reserve so fair a bride
He figh'd, and had no leisure more to say;
His honor call'd his eyes another way,
And force him to purfue the now neglected prey..
There ftood a foreft on the mountain's brow,
Which over-look'd the shaded plains below.
No founding ax prefum'd those trees to bite;
Coeval with the world, a venerable fight.
The heroes there arriv'd, fome spread around
The toils, fome fearch the footfteeps on the ground,
Some from the chains the faithful dogs unbound,,
Of action eager, and intent on thought,
The chiefs their honorable danger fought:
A valley stood below; the common drain
Of waters from above, and falling rain:
The bottom was a moift and marshy ground,
Whose edges were with bending ofiers crown'd;
The knotty bulrush next in order stood,
And all within of reeds a trembling wood.
From hence the boar was rous'd, and sprung
Like lightning fudden on the warrior-train ; Beats down the trees before him, fhakes the
The foreft ecchoes to the crackling found; Shout the fierce youth, and clamors ring around
All stood with their protended fpears prepar'd, With broad fteel heads the brandish'd weapons
The beast impetuous with his tusks aside
Deals glancing wounds; the fearful dogs divide:
All spend their mouth aloft, but none abide.
Echion threw the first, but miss'd his mark,
And stuck his boar-fpear on a maple's bark,
Then Jafon; and his javelin seem'd to take,
But fail'd with over-force, and whizz'd above his
back.
Mopfus was next; but ere he threw, address'd
To Phœbus thus: O patron, help thy priest;
If I adore, and ever have ador'd
Thy pow'r divine, thy prefent aid afford;
That I may
reach the beaft. The God allow'd His pray'r, and, fmiling, gave him what he could; He reach'd the savage, but no blood he drew, Dian unarm'd the javelin as it flew.
This chaf'd the boar, his noftrils flames expire And his red eye-balls roll with living fire. Whirl'd from a fling, or from an engine thrown, Amidft the foes, fo flies a mighty stone,
As flew the beast: the left wing put to flight, The chiefs o'erborn, he rushes on the right.
Empalamos and Pelagon he laid
In duft, and next to death, but for their fellows aiḍ. Onefimus far'd worse, prepar'd to fly;
The fatal fang drove deep within his thigh,
And cut the nerves; the nerves no more sustain
The bulk; the bulk unprop'd falls headlong on the plain.
Neftor had fail'd the fall of Troy to fee, But leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree; Then gathering up his feet, look'd down with
And thought his monftrous foe was still too near.
Against a stump his tufk the monster grinds,
And in the sharpen'd edge new vigor finds;
Then, trusting to his arms, young Othrys found,
And ranch'd his hips with one continu'd wound.
Now Leda's twins, the future ftars, appear;
White were their habits, white their horfes were;
Confpicuous both, and both in act to throw,
Their trembling lances brandifh'd at the foe:
Nor had they mifs'd; but he to thickets fled,
Conceal'd from aiming fpears, not pervious to the
fteed.
But Telamon rufh'd in, and happ'd to meet
A rifing root, that held his fasten'd feet;
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