176 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



faithful worshipper of Diana and loved only the 

 chase. In her hunting dress she looked like 

 Diana's very self, save that her bow was of horn 

 and Diana's was of silver. 



One day, as she returned from the hunt, she 

 was pursued by passionate Pan, who had long 

 sighed for her. 



Just as he overtook her she cried for help to her 

 friends, the water nymphs. 



They heard the prayer, and granted it, so that 

 Pan, who had pursued a maiden, clasped only a 

 tuft of reeds. 



As he breathed a sigh the air sounded through 

 the reeds and produced a plaintive melody. The 

 god was charmed with the sweetness of the music. 

 He bound together bits of reed of unequal length 

 and made that primitive wind instrument which he 

 called a ''syrinx," in honor of the loved and lost 

 Arcadian nymph. 



But her fear dwells ever in the reeds, and so 

 does the music of Pan. " He once played upon 

 their foremother," says Stevenson, "and so, by the 

 hand of his rivers, he still plays upon these later 

 generations, and plays the same air, both sweet 

 and shrill, to tell us of the beauty and the terror 

 of the world." 



