Threatening, he rears his knotty tail on high;
The vaft Orion thus he doom'd to die,
And fix'd him, his proud trophy in the sky.
Or could we the Salpuga's anger dread,
Or fear upon her little cell to tread ?
Yet the the fatal threads of life commands,
And quickens oft the Stygian fifters' hands.
Purfued by dangers, thus they pass'd away
The reflefs night, and thus the cheerless day;
Ev'n earth itself they fear'd, the common bed,
Where each lay down to reft his weary head:
There no kind trees their leafy couches ftrow,
The fands no turf nor moffy beds bestow;
But tir'd, and fainting with the tedious toil,
-Expos'd they fleep upon the fatal foil.
With vital heat they brood upon the ground,
And breathe a kind attractive vapour round.
While chill, with colder night's ungentle air,
To man's warm breaft his fnaky foes repair,
And find, ungrateful guests, a fhelter there.
Thence fresh fupplies of poisonous rage return,
And fiercely with recruited deaths they burn.
Reftore, thus fadly oft the foldier-said,
Reftore Emathia's plains, from whence we fled;
This grace, at least, ye cruel gods afford,
That we may fall beneath the hoftile fword.
The Dipfa's here in Cæfar's triumph fhare,
And fell Cerafte wage his civil war.
Or let us hafte away, prefs farther on,
Urge our bold paffage to the burning zone,
And die by thofe æthereal flames alone,
Afric, thy deferts we accuse no more,
Nor blame, oh nature! thy creating power:
From man thou wifely didft thefe wilds divide,
And for thy monsters here alone provide;
A region wafte and void of all befide.
Thy prudent care forbad the barren field,
The yellow harveft's ripe increase to yield;
Man and his labours well thou didst deny.
And bad ft him from the land of poifons fly.
We, impious we, the bold irruption made ;
We, this the ferpent's world, did first invade;
Take then our lives a forfeit for the crime,
Whoe'er thou art, that rul'ft this curfed clime:
What god foe'er, that only lov'st to reign,
And doft the commerce of mankind disdain;
Who, to fecure thy horrid empire's bound,
Haft fixt the Syrts, and torrid realms around;
Here the wild waves, there the flames fcorching breath, And fill'd the dreadful middle space with death.
Behold, to thy retreats our arms we bear,
And with Rome's civil rage prophane thee here;
Ev'n to thy inmoft feats we strive to go,
And seek the limits of the world to know.
Perhaps more dire events attend us yet;
New deaths, new monsters, ftill we go to meet.
Perhaps to thofe far feas our journey bends,
Where to the waves the burning fun defcends; Where, rushing headlong down heaven's azure steep, All red he plunges in the hiffing deep.
Low finks the pole, declining from its height,
And seems to yield beneath the rapid weight.
Nor farther lands from fame herself are known,
But Mauritanian Juba's realms alone.
Perhaps, while, rafhly daring, on we pass,
Fate may discover fome more dreadful place;
Till, late repenting, we may wish in vain
To see these ferpents, and these fands again,
One joy at least do these fad regions give,
Ev'n here we know 'tis poffible to live;
That, by the native plagues, we may perceive.
Nor ask we now for Afia's gentler day,
Nor now for European funs we pray;
Thee, Afric, now, thy abfence we deplore,
And fadly think we ne'er shall see thee more.
Say, in what part, what climate, art thou loft ?
Where have we left Cyrene's happy frost ?
Cold fkies we felt, and frofty winter there,
While more than fummer funs are raging here,
And break the laws of the well-order d year.
Southward, beyond earth's limits, are we pafs'd, 1495
And Rome, at length, beneath our feet is plac'd.
Grant us, ye gods, one pleasure ere we die,
Add to our harder fate this only joy,
That Cæfar may pursue, and follow where we fly.
Impatient, thus the foldier oft complains,
And feems, by telling, to relieve his pains.
But moft the virtues of their matchlefs chief
Infpire new ftrength, to bear with every grief;
All night, with careful thoughts and watchful eyes,
On the bare fands expos'd the hero lies;
In every place alike, in every hour,
Dares his ill fortune, and defies her power.
Unweary'd ftill, his common care attends
On every fate, and chears his dying friends:
With ready hafte at each fad call he flies,
And more than health, or life itself, fupplies;
With virtue's noblest precepts arms their fouls,
And ev❜n their forrows, like his own, controls.
Where-e'er he comes, no figns of grief are shown;
Grief, an unmanly weakness, they difown,
And fcorn to figh, or breathe one parting groan.
Still urging on his pious cares, he strove
The fenfe of outward evils to remove;
And, by his presence, taught them to disdain
The feeble rage and impotence of pain.
'But now, fo many toils and dangers paft, Fortune grew kind, and brought relief at last. Of all who fcorching Afric's fun endure,
None like the fwarthy Pfyllians are secure.
Skill'd in the lore of powerful herbs and charms, 1525
Them, nor the serpent's tooth, nor poison harms
Nor do they thus in arts alone excel,
But nature too their blood has temper'd well,
And taught with vital force the venom to repel.
With healing gifts and privileges grac'd,
Well in the land of ferpents were they plac'd ;
Truce with the dreadful tyrant, death, they have,
And border safely on his realm, the grave.
Such is their confidence in true-born blood,
That oft with afps they prove their doubtful brood;
When wanton wives their jealous rage inflame, 1536
The new-born infant clears or damns the dame;
If fubject to the wrathful ferpent's wound,
The mother's fhame is by the danger found;
But if unhurt the fearless infant laugh;
The wife is honeft, and the husband fafe.
So when Jove's bird, on fome tall cedar's head,
Has a new race of generous eaglets bred,
While yet unplum'd, within the nest they lie,
Wary the turns them to the eastern sky;
Then if, unequal to the god of day,
Abafh'd they shrink, and fhun the potent ray,
She fpurns them forth, and cafts them quite away:
But if with daring eyes unmov'd they gaze,
Withstand the light, and bear the golden blaze; 1550
Tender the broods them with a parent's love,
The future fervants of her mafter Jove.
Nor fafe themfelves, alone, the Pfyllians are,
But to their guests extend their friendly care.
First, where the Roman camp is mark'd, around
Circling they pafs, then, chanting, charm the ground
And chace the ferpents with the myftic found.
Beyond the farthest tents rich fires they build,
That healthy medicinal odours yield;
There foreign Galbanum diffolving fries,
And crackling flames from humble Wall-wort rife;
There Tamarifk, which no green
leaf adorns,
And there the spicy Syrian Coltos burns.
There Centory fupplies the wholefome flame,
That from Theffalian Chiron takes its name;
The gummy Larch-Tree, and the Thapfos there,
Wound-wort and Maiden-weed, perfume the air.
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