The ounce and panther down the mountain side Creep thro' dark greenness in the eventide; And at the fountain's brink Casting great shades, they drink, Gazing upon me, tame and sapphire-eyed; For, awed by my pale face, whose light Gleameth thro' sedge and lilies yellow They, lapping at my fountain mellow, Harm not the lamb that in affright Throws in the pool so mellow, mellow, mellow, Its shadow small and dusky-white. Oft do the fauns and satyrs, flusht with play, Come to my coolness in the hot noonday. Nay, once indeed, I vow By Dian's truthful brow, The great god Pan himself did pass this way, And, all in festal oak-leaves clad, His limbs among these lilies throwing, Watch'd the silver waters flowing, Listen'd to their music glad, Saw and heard them flowing, flowing, flowing, And ah! his face was worn and sad! Mild joys like silvery waters fall; But it is sweetest, sweetest far of all, In the calm summer night, When the tree-tops look white, To be exhaled in dew at Dian's call, Among my sister-clouds to move Over the darkness, earth bedimming, Milky-robed thro' heaven swimming, Floating round the stars above, Swimming proudly, swimming proudly, swimming, And waiting on the Moon I love. So tenderly I keep this cool, green shrine, Deep in the bosom of a wood of pine; Faithful thro' shade and sun, That service due and done May haply earn for me a place divine Among the white-robed deities That thread thro' starry paths, attending My sweet Lady, calmly wending Thro' the silence of the skies, Changing in hues of beauty never ending, Drinking the light of Dian's eyes.[176] =135. The Dryads=, or =Hamadryads=, assumed at times the forms of peasant girls, shepherdesses, or followers of the hunt. But they were believed to perish with certain trees which had been their abode and with which they had come into existence. Wantonly to destroy a tree was therefore an impious act, sometimes severely punished, as in the cases of Erysichthon and Dryope.