91 KEPHALOS AND PROCRIS.1 F all the maidens in the land of Attica none OF was so beautiful as Procris, the daughter of King Erectheus. She was the delight of her father's heart, not so much for her beauty as for her goodness and her gentleness. The sight of her fair face, and the sound of her happy voice, brought gladness to all who saw and heard her. Every one stopped to listen to the songs which she sang as she sat working busily at the loom; and the maidens who dwelt with her were glad when the hour came to go with Procris and wash their clothes 2 or draw water from the fountain.3 Then, when all her tasks were ended, she would roam over hill and valley, into every nook and dell. There was no spot in all the land where Procris had not been. She lay down to rest on the top of the highest hills, or by the side of the stream where it murmured among the rocks far down in the woody glen. So passed her days away; and while all loved her and rejoiced to see her face, only Procris knew not of her own beauty, and thought not of her own goodness. But they amongst whom she lived, the old and the young, the sorrowful and the happy, all said that Procris, the child of Hersê, was always as fair and bright as the dew of early morning. Once in her many wanderings she had climbed the heights of Mount Hymettos, almost before the first streak of dawn was seen in the sky. Far away, as she looked over the blue sea, her eyes rested on the glittering cliffs and white shore of Euboea, and as she looked she saw that a ship was sailing towards the shore beneath the hill of Hymettos. Presently it reached the shore, and she could see that a man stepped out of the ship, and began to climb the hill, while the rest remained on the beach. As he came nearer to her, Procris knew that his face was very fair, and she thought that she had never seen such beauty in mortal man before. She had heard that sometimes the gods come down from their home on Olympus to mingle among the children of men, and that sometimes the bright heroes were seen in the places where they had lived on the earth before they were taken to dwell in the halls of Zeus. As the stranger came near to her, the sun rose up brightly and without a cloud from the dark sea; and its light fell on his face, and made it gleam with more than mortal beauty. Gently he came towards her, and said, 'O lady, I am come from the far-off eastern land; and as I drew near to this shore, I saw that some one was resting here upon the hill. So I hastened to leave the ship, that I might learn the name of the country which I have reached. My name is Kephalos, and my father Hêlios lives in a beautiful home beyond the sea; but I am travelling over the earth, till I shall have gone over every land and seen all the cities which men have built. Tell me now thy name, and the name of this fair land.' Then she said, 'O stranger, my name is Procris, and I am the daughter of King Erectheus, who dwells at Athens yonder, where thou seest the bright line of Kephîsos flowing gently towards the sea.' So Procris guided the stranger to her father's house; and Erectheus received him kindly, and spread a banquet before him. But as they feasted and drank the dark red wine, he thought almost that Kephalos must be one of the bright heroes come back to his own land, so fair and beautiful was he to look upon, and that none save only his own child Procris might be compared to him for beauty. Long time Kephalos abode in the house of Erectheus, and, each day, he loved more and |