ARCADIA. 349 



" midnight, Allow mc, I entreat you, to flay 

 " here till the end of this ftory. My father, I am 

 '^* near you, and I fhall apprehend no danger." 



Tyrteus looked at his daughter, with afmile; 

 and, having made an apology to Amafis for inter- 

 rupting him, entreated he would proceed. 



We went out of the hut, replied Amafts^ in the 

 middle of a dark night, by the fmoky light of fir- 

 torches. We traverfed, at firft, a vaft field of 

 ftones ; we faw, here and there, the ikeletons of 

 horfes and of dogs, fixed upon flakes. From thence 

 we arrived at the entrance of a large cavern, hol- 

 lowed in the fide of a rock all over white (19). 

 The lumps of black clotted blood, which had been 

 ihed around, exhaled an infedious fmell, and an- 

 nounced this to be the Temple of Mars. In the 

 interior of this frightful den, along the walls, were 

 ranged human heads and bones ; and, in the 

 middle of it, upon a piece of rock, a ftatue of 

 iron reared itfelf to the fummit of the cavern, re- 

 prefenting the God Mars. It was fo mif-fliapen, 

 that it had more refemblance to a block of rufty 

 iron than to the God of War. We could diltin- 

 guilh, however, his club, fct thick with piercing 

 points, his gloves ftudded with the heads of nails, 

 and his horrible girdle, on which was portrayed 

 tlie image of Death. At his feet was feated the 



King 



