ARCADIA, 37^ 



afpeél of his arms infpired horror : his head and 

 fhoulders were clad in the fkin of a prickly thorn- 

 back ; he wore around his neck a collar of human 

 jaw-bones, and he bore for a lance, the trunk of a 

 young fir, armed with the tooth of a whale. 

 " What demanded thou of Hercules F' faid he to 

 me, " here he is to attend thee." At the fame 

 time, he aimed at me a ftroke of his enormous 

 lance, with fo much fury, that if it had hit the 

 mark, I muft have been nailed by it to the ground, 

 which it penetrated to a great depth. While he 

 was ftruggling to difengage it, I pierced him 

 through the throat with the fpear which was in my 

 hand : there immediately iflued from the wound a 

 ftream of black and thick blood ; and down fell 

 the {lately Briton, biting the ground, and biaf- 

 pheming the Gods. 



Mean while our troops, collefted into one firm 

 body, were clofely engaged with the column of the 

 enemy. Clubs clalhed with clubs, buckler prefled 

 on buckler, lance crofled lance. Thus two fierce 

 bulls difpute the empire of the meadows : their 

 horns entwine ; their foreheads rattle againft each 

 other : bellowing, they prefs in oppofite direc- 

 tions ; and whether they gain or lofe ground, nei- 

 ther feparates from his rival. Thus we maintained 

 the combat, body to body. Neverthelefs, that co- 

 lumn, which exceeded us in numbers, was bearing 



£ b 2 ns 



