_Asc._ Father, I faint; good father, give me meat. _Æn._ Alas! sweet boy, thou must be still a while, Till we have fire to dress the meat we killed! Gentle Achates, reach the tinder-box, That we may make a fire to warm us with, And roast our new-found victuals on this shore. _Ven._ See, what strange arts necessity finds out! How near, my sweet Æneas, art thou driven! [_Aside._ _Æn._ Hold; take this candle, and go light a fire; 171 You shall have leaves and windfall boughs enow, Near to these woods, to roast your meat withal.-- Ascanius, go and dry thy drenchèd limbs, Whiles I with my Achates rove abroad, To know what coast the wind hath driven us on, Or whether men or beasts inhabit it. [_Exeunt_ ASCANIUS _and others._ _Ach._ The air is pleasant, and the soil most fit For cities and society's supports; Yet much I marvel that I cannot find 180 No steps of men imprinted in the earth. _Ven._ Now is the time for me to play my part.-- [_Aside._ Ho, young men! saw you, as you came,[451] Any of all my sisters wandering here, Having a quiver girded to her side, And clothèd in a spotted leopard's skin? _Æn._ I neither saw nor heard of any such. But what may I, fair virgin, call your name, Whose looks set forth no mortal form to view, Nor speech bewrays aught human in thy birth? 190 Thou art a goddess that delud'st our eyes, And shrouds thy beauty in this borrow'd shape; But whether thou the Sun's bright sister be, Or one of chaste Diana's fellow-nymphs, Live happy in the height of all content, And lighten our extremes with this one boon, As to instruct us under what good heaven We breathe as now, and what this world is called On which by tempests' fury we are cast: Tell us, O, tell us, that are ignorant! 200 And this right hand shall make thy altars crack With mountain-heaps of milk-white sacrifice. _Ven._ Such honour, stranger, do I not affect: It is the use for Tyrian[452] maids to wear Their bow and quiver in this modest sort, And suit themselves in purple for the nonce, That they may trip more lightly o'er the lawnds,[453] And overtake the tuskèd boar in chase. But for the land whereof thou dost inquire, It is the Punic kingdom, rich and strong, 210 Adjoining on Agenor's stately town, The kingly seat of Southern Libya, Whereas Sidonian Dido rules as queen. But what are you that ask of me these things? Whence may you come, or whither will you go?