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othcr in their mutual affliction. They wept caressing 

 the little gazelle which also shed tears. While they 

 thus wept , a celestial messenger came to announce 

 to them , as it is reported , that henceforth Orpheus 

 and Eurydice may prétend to the rank of demi-gods. 

 Poets have in a thousand ways related this voyage , 

 which was a succession of wonders. The initiating 

 pair, had only the lyre, to overcome every obstacle , 

 to surmount every danger, to avert every terror. 

 Sublime initiation , thou wert indeed worthy of 

 being sung by the poets ! 



» Such was the first récitât of Thamyris. He added : 

 King of the square hill , the history of Talaon and 

 Vola is entirely unknown to me , both before and 

 after the events I have just related. Theif origin is 

 not knoWn, nor the détails of their life, nor the 

 circumstances of their death. However nothing is 

 more famous in Crète, than the man with the brazen 

 enflamed body , who in one day made three times 

 the tour of the island. Nothing is more famous than 

 the combats waged by him against strangers , no- 

 thing is more famous than the fatal nail which torn 

 from his heel , was to let bis life escape along with 

 his blood ; nothing is more famous or less compré- 

 hensible. As to Vola , priestess of cruel religions 

 which she was forbidden to divulge to her daughter, 

 as to Vola, evenher name must perish. 



» I will now inform you, vénérable Evander, of 

 what I know concerning Orpheus and Eurydice. 



END. 



