_Here SETHLANS, sovereign of life's fix'd domains._ Sethlans, the Etrurian Vulcan. He appears sometimes to assume the attributes of Terminus, though in a higher and more ethereal sense--presiding over the bounds of life, as Terminus over those of the land. 10.--Page 280, stanza lii. _On the Fork'd Hill), abjures his genial smile._ Tinia, the Etrurian Bacchus (son of Tina), identified symbolically with the god of the infernal regions. In the funeral monuments he sometimes assumes the most fearful aspect. The above description of the Etrurian Hades, with its eight gates, is taken in each detail from vases and funeral monuments, most of which are cited by MICALI. 11.--Page 285, stanza lxxxii. _Woe on the helmet-crown of Dorian kings!_ In moonless nights, every eighth year, the Spartan Ephors consulted the heavens; if there appeared the meteor, which we call the shooting-star, they adjudged their kings to have committed some offence against the gods, and suspended them from their office till acquitted by the Delphic oracle, or Olympian priests.--PLUT. _Agis_, 11; MULLER'S _Dorians_, b. iii. c. 6. 12.--Page 287, stanza c. _Etrurian Naeniae, load the lagging wind._ Naeniae, the funeral hymns borrowed by the Romans from the Etrurians. 13.--Page 288, stanza vi. _Bright Cupra braids thy hair._ Cupra, or Talna, corresponding with Juno, the nuptial goddess. [D] The _w_ is to be pronounced as _oo_. BOOK VI. ARGUMENT. Description of the Cymrian fire-beacons--Dialogue between Gawaine and Caradoc--The raven--Merlin announces to Gawaine that the bird selects him for the aid of the King--The knight's pious scruples--He yields reluctantly, and receives the raven as his guide--His pathetic farewell to Caradoc--He confers with Henricus on the propriety of exorcising the raven--Character of Henricus--The knight sets out on his adventures-- The company he meets, and the obligation he incurs--The bride and the sword--The bride's choice and the hound's fidelity--Sir Gawaine lies down to sleep under the fairy's oak--What there befalls him--The fairy banquet--The temptation of Sir Gawaine--The rebuke of the fairies--Sir Gawaine, much displeased with the raven, resumes his journey--His adventure with the Vikings, and how he comforts himself in his captivity. On the bare summit of the loftiest peak-- 1 Crowning the hills round Cymri's Iscan home, Rose the grey temple of the Faith Antique, Before whose priests had paused the march of Rome, When the Dark Isle reveal'd its drear abodes, And the last Hades of Cimmerian gods; While dauntless Druids, by their shrines profaned, 2 Stretch'd o'er the steel-clad hush, their swordless hands,[1] And dire Religion, horror-breathing, chain'd The frozen eagles,--till the shuddering bands Shamed into slaughter, broke the ghastly spell, And, lost in reeks of carnage, sunk the hell