THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. 127

had caught a wild bull alive, and let him go again, and
had tamed a number of very wild horses, and had con-
quered Hippolyta, the warlike queen of the Amazons.
He mentioned, likewise, that he had taken off Hippo-
lyta’s enchanted girdle, and had given it to the daughter
of his cousin, the king. |

“Was it the girdle of Venus,” inquired the prettiest of
the damsels, “ which makes women beautiful ? ”

“No,” answered the stranger. “It had formerly
been the sword-belt of Mars; and it can only make the
wearer valiant and courageous.”

“An old sword-belt!’’ cried the damsel, tossing her
head. ‘* Then I should not care about having it!”

“You are right,” said the stranger.

Going on with his wonderful narrative, he informed
the maidens that as strange an adventure as ever hap-
pened was when he fought with Geryon, the six-legged
man. ‘This was a very odd and frightful sort of figure,
as you may well believe. Any person, looking at his
tracks in the sand or snow, would suppose that three
sociable companions had been walking along together.
On hearmg his footsteps at a little distance, it was no
more than reasonable to judge that several people must
be coming. But it was only the strange man Geryon
clattering onward, with his six legs !

Six legs, and one gigantic body! Certainly, he must
have been a very queer monster to look at; and, my stars,
what a waste of shoe-leather !

When the stranger had finished the story of his ad-
ventures, he looked around at the attentive faces of the
maidens.