4.0) TILE GORGON’S HEAD.

all to pieces. The snakes that served them instead of
hair seemed likewise to be asleep; although, now and
then, one would writhe, and lift its head, and thrust out
its forked tongue, emitting a drowsy hiss, and then let
itself subside among its sister snakes.

_ The Gorgons were more like an awful, gigantic kind of
insect, — immense, golden-winged beetles, or dragon-flies,
or things of that sort, —at once ugly and beautiful, —.
than like anything else; only that they were a thousand
and a million times as big. And, with all this, there
was something partly human about them, too. Luckily
for Perseus, their faces were completely hidden from him
by the posture in which they lay ; for, had he but looked
one instant at them, he would have fallen heavily out of
tle air, an image of senseless stone.

— * Now,” whispered Quicksilver, as he hovered by the
side of Perseus, — ‘‘ now is your time to do the deed! Be
quick ; for, if one of the Gorgons should awake, you are
too late!”

“Which shall I strike at ?”’ asked Perseus, drawing his
sword and descending a little lower. ‘They all three
look alike. All three have snaky locks. Which of the
three is Medusa ? ”

It must be understood that Medusa was the only one
of these dragon-monsters whose head Perseus could pos-
sibly cut off. As for the other two, let him have the
sharpest sword that ever was forged, and he might have
hacked away by the hour together, without doing them
the least harm. |
_ Be cautious,” said the calm voice which had before