THE GORGON’S HEAD. 29

world. Thus it will easily be understood that only one
of the Three Gray Women could see, while the other two
were in utter darkness; and, moreover, at the instant
when the eye was passing from hand to hand, neither of
the poor old ladies was able to see awink. I have heard
of a great many strange things, in my day, and have
witnessed not a few; but none, it seems to me, that can
compare with the oddity of these Three Gray Women,
all peeping through a single eye.

So thought Perseus, likewise, and was so astonished
that he almost fancied his companion was joking with him,
and that there were no such old women in the world.

“You will soon find whether I tell the truth or
no,” observed Quicksilver. “Hark! hush! hist! hist!
There they come, now ! ”

Perseus looked earnestly through the dusk of the
evening, and there, sure enough, at no great distance off,
he descried the Three Gray Women. The light being so
faint, he could not well make out what sort of figures
they were; only he discovered that they had long gray
hair; and, as they came nearer, he saw that two of them
had but the empty socket of an eye, in the middle of
their foreheads. But, in the middle of the third sister’s
forehead, there was a very large, bright, and piercing
eye, which sparkled like a great diamond in a ring; and
so penctrating did it seem to be, that Perseus could not
help thinking it must possess the gift of seeing in the
darkest midnight just as perfectly as at noonday. The
sight of three persons’ eyes was melted and collected into
that single one.