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cropped tlie green pasture as before. Now he found his 



thyrsus, and wandered over the country teaching his arts. At 

 length he approaclied Thebes, and all the inhabitants ran out to 

 meet the fire-engendered youth. But Pentheus threatened to rend 

 him asunder, maugre the hoary hairs of Cadmus and Agave suppliant 

 at his feet. The Bacchantse, alarmed, cast their garlands from tiieir 

 heads, and their thyrsi from their hands, — tears fell from their eyes, 

 and they called aloud on Bacchus to hurl his paternal thunderbolts, 

 and take vengeance on the ruthless tyrant, — to change him into a 

 bull, and them into carnivorous beasts of prey, to rend him asunder. 

 Their prayer was heard. The god raised aloft the neck of Pen- 

 theus, gave him a sanguinary eye, and armed him with threatening 

 horns. He caused the women to assume the savage aspect of wild 

 beasts, lined their jaws with formidable teeth, clothed them in dap- 

 pled hides like deer, and rendered their disposition fierce. They 

 became panthers, and tore their unhappy victim to pieces. They 

 still retain their native fondness for wine, as is evinced by the mode 

 in which they are taken. In the thirsty regions of Africa, when 

 they have discovered a small pool of water, they repair to slake their 

 thirst in it, with the first rays of the morning. Thither, before the 

 dawn, the hunters have brought twenty jars of sweet wine, ripened 

 by the revolution of nine years. Having mingled it with the water, 

 they retire to a distance, and lie concealed. The panthers come 

 to the wonted haunt, drink copiously, and then frisk about like 

 dancers, till overpowered by the wine they lie down and sleep, and 

 become an easy prey to the hunter. 



The himting of bears on the banks of the Tigris is thus pursued: 

 A great multitude of himters go into the deep recesses of tlie woods, 

 accompanied by dogs in leashes, one of which is slipt to trace the 

 wild beast to his lair. The dog pursue?, exulting as a young virgin 



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