[Footnote HI: The Black Sea. Orpheus accompanied the Argonauts in their expedition to Colchis. In the earlier form of the legend, this lyre subdued the winds and waves, and fixed the Symplegades firm in the sea, so that the Argo passed through unharmed. (See the legends in Ovid and Virgil, and in the _Argonautica_ of Apollonius Rhodius, 1. 23.)--ED.] [Footnote HJ: See _Paradise Lost_, book iii. l. 17.--ED.] [Footnote HK: According to the Greek astronomers, the lyre of Orpheus was placed by Zeus amongst the stars.--ED.] [Footnote HL: For when we're there, although 'tis fair, 'Twill be another Yarrow. (See vol. ii. p. 413).--ED.] XI ON APPROACHING THE STAUBBACH, LAUTERBRUNNEN Uttered by whom, or how inspired--designed For what strange service, does this concert reach Our ears, and near the dwellings of mankind! 'Mid fields familiarized to human speech?-- No Mermaids warble--to allay the wind 5 Driving some vessel toward a dangerous beach-- More thrilling melodies; Witch answering Witch, To chaunt a love-spell, never intertwined[494] Notes shrill and wild with art more musical: Alas! that from the lips of abject Want 10 Or[495] Idleness in tatters mendicant The strain should flow-free Fancy to enthral,[496] And with regret and useless pity haunt This bold, this bright,[497] this sky-born, WATERFALL! The Staubbach is a narrow Stream, which, after a long course on the heights, comes to the sharp edge of a somewhat overhanging precipice, overleaps it with a bound, and, after a fall of 930 feet, forms again a rivulet. The vocal powers of these musical Beggars may seem to be exaggerated; but this wild and savage air was utterly unlike any sounds I had ever heard; the notes reached me from a distance, and on what occasion they were sung I could not guess, only they seemed to belong, in some way or other, to the Waterfall--and reminded me of religious services chaunted to Streams and Fountains in Pagan times.--W. W. 1822. Mr. Southey has thus accurately characterised the peculiarity of this music: "While we were at the Waterfall, some half-score peasants, chiefly women and girls, assembled just out of reach of the Spring, and set up--surely, the wildest chorus that ever was heard by human ears,--a song not of articulate sounds, but in which the voice was used as a mere instrument of music, more flexible than any which art could produce,--sweet, powerful, and thrilling beyond description." (See Notes to _A Tale of Paraguay_.)--W. W. 1837.