THE BLACK STEEDS OF AIDONEUS 



THEY lived for the most of the time in a land 

 of dread, deep down in the earth, where the 

 light of the sun could not reach them; and that, 

 it may be, is what made them so dark. Men said 

 that they were as black as coal, as ink, as tar, 

 as the ace of spades. But they were so strong 

 and swift and proud, and their eyes were so 

 bright, and their coats were so sleek, that no one 

 could see them and not wish to have them for 

 his own. And yet so sharp of tooth, so light of 

 heel, so full of fire were they, that it would have 

 been worth your life to touch them. King Ai- 

 doneus kept them in stalls of gold that he had 

 built for them near the banks of the stream which 

 is called the Styx, and there he fed them and 

 cared for them with his own hands. 



Since in all his realms there was no light of the 

 sun, nor smiles of friends, nor joy of life, — 

 naught but tears and the shades of night, — Ai- 

 doneus liked at times to come up to the world of 



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