28 THE WONDER-BOOK OF HORSES 



love and hope to see what kind of cheer he might 

 find there. And so now and then men caught 

 sight of him in a cloud-Hke car drawn by his four 

 coal-black steeds, which flew through the air 

 with the speed of the wind, or pranced and reared 

 on the edge of some steep cliff, or leaped down 

 from the top of some far-off height. And the tales 

 which they told of his deeds were such as fill 

 the heart with fear ; for they said that his breath 

 was cold as the blast of the north wind, or else 

 hot as the fire that leaps from Mount Etna's 

 mouth ; and cloud and storm, and hail and snow, 

 and dire pain and dread — all these he brought 

 to the earth in the wake of his swift car and 

 night-black team. 



Now one day in the late fall, when the frost 

 had not yet touched the leaves, and the fields were 

 still bright with bloom, he thought that he would 

 ride out and see some of the fair things that had 

 been born of the earth and the sun. He rode up 

 by way of Mount Etna, and out through the 

 smoke and clouds that poured from its top, and 

 looked down toward the green fields of Enna, not 

 far from its base. Then, with a sharp word to 

 his team, he drove in great haste down the steep 

 slopes, and paused not till he reached the plain. 



