Loudly they proclaimed that none but themselves, the fishwives of
Boulogne, should help the _soeurs Anglaises_. They shouldered bag and
baggage; they swung the heavy trunks up on their broad backs, and with
laughter and tears mingled in true French fashion, trudged away to the
railway station. Pay? Not a sou; not a centime! The blessing of our
English sisters is all we desire; and if they should chance to see
Pierre or Jacques _là-bas_--ah! the heavens are over all. A handshake,
then, and _Adieu! Adieu! vivent les soeurs!_ the good God go with you!
And that prayer was surely answered.
CHAPTER VIII.
SCUTARI.
Open the atlas once more at the map of Russia, and look downward from
the Crimea, across the Black Sea toward the southwest. You see a narrow
strait marked "Bosporus" leading from the Black Sea to the Sea of
Marmora; and on either side of the strait a black dot, one marked
"Constantinople," the other "Scutari." It is to Scutari that we are
going, but we must not pass the other places without a word, for they
are very famous. This is the land of story, and every foot of ground,
every trickle of water, has its legend or fairy tale, or true story of
sorrow or heroism.
Bosporus means "the cow's ford." It was named, the old story says, for
Io, a beautiful maiden beloved of Zeus. To conceal her from the eyes of
Hera, his jealous wife, Zeus turned Io into a snow-white heifer; but
Hera, suspecting the truth, persuaded him to give the poor pretty
creature to her. Then followed a sad time. Hera set Argus, a giant with
a hundred eyes, to watch the heifer, lest she escape and regain her
human form. The poor heifer-maiden was so unhappy that Zeus sent Hermes
to set her free; and the cunning god told stories to Argus till he fell
asleep, and then cut off his head, hundred eyes and all. Hera took the
eyes and put them in the tail of her sacred peacock, and there they are
to this day. Meantime Io ran away as fast as she could, but she could
not escape the vengeance of the jealous goddess. Hera sent a gadfly
after her, which stung her cruelly, and pursued her over land and sea.
The poor creature fled wildly hither and thither; swam across the Ionian
Sea, which has borne her name ever since; roamed over the whole breadth
of what is now Turkey, and finally came to the narrow strait or ford
between the two seas. Here she crossed again, and went on her weary way;
and here again she left--not her own name, but that of the animal in
whose form she suffered. Poor Io! one is glad to read that she was
released at last, and given her woman's body again. True? No, the story
is not true, but it is very famous. Those of you who care about moths
will find another reminder of Io in the beautiful _Saturnia Io_, which
is named for the Greek maiden and her cruel foe, Saturnia being another
name for Hera or Juno.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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