Famous Tales of Fact and Fancy: Myths and Legends of the Nations of the World Retold for Boys and Girls
General
Famous Tales of Fact and Fancy: Myths and Legends of the Nations of the World Retold for Boys and Girls
Legends -- Juvenile literature; Mythology -- Juvenile literature
"Don't let them make a fool of you!" said he. "These Three Gray Women
are the only persons in the world that can tell you where to find the
Nymphs, and unless you get that information you will never succeed in
cutting off the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. Keep fast hold on
the eye and all will go well."
As it turned out, Quicksilver was in the right. There are but few things
that people prize so much as they do their eyesight; and the Gray Women
valued their single eye as highly as if it had been half a dozen, which
was the number they ought to have had. Finding that there was no other
way of recovering it, they at last told Perseus what he wanted to know.
No sooner had they done so than he immediately and with the utmost
respect clapped the eye into the vacant socket in one of their
foreheads, thanked them for their kindness and bade them farewell.
Before the young man was out of hearing, however, they had got into a
new dispute, because he happened to have given the eye to Scarecrow, who
had already taken her turn of it when their trouble with Perseus
commenced.
It is greatly to be feared that the Three Gray Women were very much in
the habit of disturbing their mutual harmony by bickerings of this sort,
which was the more pity, as they could not conveniently do without one
another and were evidently intended to be inseparable companions. As a
general rule, I would advise all people, whether sisters or brothers,
old or young, who chance to have but one eye amongst them, to cultivate
forbearance and not all insist upon peeping through it at once.
Quicksilver and Perseus, in the meantime, were making the best of their
way in quest of the Nymphs. The old dames had given them such particular
directions that they were not long in finding them out. They proved to
be very different persons from Nightmare, Shakejoint and Scarecrow; for,
instead of being old, they were young and beautiful; and instead of one
eye amongst the sisterhood, each Nymph had two exceedingly bright eyes
of her own, with which she looked very kindly at Perseus. They seemed to
be acquainted with Quicksilver, and when he told them the adventure
which Perseus had undertaken, they made no difficulty about giving him
the valuable articles that were in their custody. In the first place,
they brought out what appeared to be a small purse, made of deer skin
and curiously embroidered, and bade him be sure and keep it safe. This
was the magic wallet. The Nymphs next produced a pair of shoes or
slippers or sandals, with a nice little pair of wings at the heel of
each.
"Put them on, Perseus," said Quicksilver. "You will find yourself as
light-heeled as you can desire for the remainder of our journey."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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