and so frightened them with their drawn swords, that they

solemnly promised never to trouble King Phineus again.
Then the Argonauts sailed onward and met with many other

marvelous incidents, any one of which would make a story by
itself. At one time they landed on an island, and were reposing

on the grass, when they suddenly found themselves assailed by
what seemed a shower of steel-headed arrows. Some of them stuck

in the ground, while others hit against their shields, and
several penetrated their flesh. The fifty heroes started up,

and looked about them for the hidden enemy, but could find
none, nor see any spot, on the whole island, where even a

single archer could lie concealed. Still, however, the
steel-headed arrows came whizzing among them; and, at last,

happening to look upward, they beheld a large flock of birds,
hovering and wheeling aloft, and shooting their feathers down

upon the Argonauts. These feathers were the steel-headed arrows
that had so tormented them. There was no possibility of making

any resistance; and the fifty heroic Argonauts might all have
been killed or wounded by a flock of troublesome birds, without

ever setting eyes on the Golden Fleece, if Jason had not
thought of asking the advice of the oaken image.

So he ran to the galley as fast as his legs would carry him.
"O, daughter of the Speaking Oak," cried he, all out of breath,

"we need your wisdom more than ever before! We are in great
peril from a flock of birds, who are shooting us with their

steel-pointed feathers. What can we do to drive them away?"
"Make a clatter on your shields," said the image.

On receiving this excellent counsel, Jason hurried back to his
companions (who were far more dismayed than when they fought

with the six-armed giants), and bade them strike with their
swords upon their brazen shields. Forthwith the fifty heroes

set heartily to work, banging with might and main, and raised
such a terrible clatter, that the birds made what haste they

could to get away; and though they had shot half the feathers
out of their wings, they were soon seen skimming among the

clouds, a long distance off, and looking like a flock of wild
geese. Orpheus celebrated this victory by playing a triumphant

anthem on his harp, and sang so melodiously that Jason begged
him to desist, lest, as the steel-feathered birds had been

driven away by an ugly sound, they might be enticed back again
by a sweet one.

While the Argonauts remained on this island, they saw a small
vessel approaching the shore, in which were two young men of

princely demeanor, and exceedingly handsome, as young princes
generally were, in those days. Now, who do you imagine these

two voyagers turned out to be? Why, if you will believe me,
they were the sons of that very Phrixus, who, in his childhood,

had been carried to Colchis on the back of the golden-fleeced
ram. Since that time, Phrixus had married the king's daughter;

and the two young princes had been born and brought up at
Colchis, and had spent their play-days in the outskirts of the

grove, in the center of which the Golden Fleece was hanging
upon a tree. They were now on their way to Greece, in hopes of

getting back a kingdom that had been wrongfully taken from
their father.

When the princes understood whither the Argonauts were going,
they offered to turn back, and guide them to Colchis. At the

same time, however, they spoke as if it were very doubtful
whether Jason would succeed in getting the Golden Fleece.

According to their account, the tree on which it hung was
guarded by a terrible dragon, who never failed to devour, at

one mouthful, every person who might venture within his reach.
"There are other difficulties in the way," continued the young

princes. "But is not this enough? Ah, brave Jason, turn back
before it is too late. It would grieve us to the heart, if you

and your nine and forty brave companions should be eaten up, at
fifty mouthfuls, by this execrable dragon."

"My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder
that you think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from

infancy in the fear of this monster, and therefore still regard
him with the awe that children feel for the bugbears and

hobgoblins which their nurses have talked to them about. But,
in my view of the matter, the dragon is merely a pretty large

serpent, who is not half so likely to snap me up at one
mouthful as I am to cut off his ugly head, and strip the skin

from his body. At all events, turn back who may, I will never
see Greece again, unless I carry with me the Golden Fleece."

"We will none of us turn back!" cried his nine and forty brave
comrades. "Let us get on board the galley this instant; and if

the dragon is to make a breakfast of us, much good may it do
him."

And Orpheus (whose custom it was to set everything to music)
began to harp and sing most gloriously, and made every mother's

son of them feel as if nothing in this world were so delectable
as to fight dragons, and nothing so truly honorable as to be

eaten up at one mouthful, in case of the worst.
After this (being now under the guidance of the two princes,

who were well acquainted with the way), they quickly sailed to
Colchis. When the king of the country, whose name was Aetes,

heard of their arrival, he instantly summoned Jason to court.
The king was a stern and cruel looking potentate; and though he

put on as polite and hospitable an expression as he could,
Jason did not like his face a whit better than that of the

wicked King Pelias, who dethroned his father. "You are welcome,
brave Jason," said King Aetes. "Pray, are you on a pleasure

voyage?--Or do you meditate the discovery of unknown
islands?--or what other cause has procured me the happiness of

seeing you at my court?"
"Great sir," replied Jason, with an obeisance--for Chiron had

taught him how to behave with propriety, whether to kings or
beggars--"I have come hither with a purpose which I now beg

your majesty's permission to execute. King Pelias, who sits on
my father's throne (to which he has no more right than to the

one on which your excellent majesty is now seated), has engaged
to come down from it, and to give me his crown and sceptre,

provided I bring him the Golden Fleece. This, as your majesty
is aware, is now hanging on a tree here at Colchis; and I

humbly solicit your gracious leave to take it away." In spite
of himself, the king's face twisted itself into an angry frown;

for, above all things else in the world, he prized the Golden
Fleece, and was even suspected of having done a very wicked

act, in order to get it into his own possession. It put him
into the worst possible humor, therefore, to hear that the

gallant Prince Jason, and forty-nine of the bravest young
warriors of Greece, had come to Colchis with the sole purpose

of taking away his chief treasure.
"Do you know," asked King Aetes, eyeing Jason very sternly,

"what are the conditions which you must fulfill before getting
possession of the Golden Fleece?"

"I have heard," rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath
the tree on which the prize hangs, and that whoever approaches

him runs the risk of being devoured at a mouthful."
"True," said the king, with a smile that did not look

particularly good-natured. "Very true, young man. But there are
other things as hard, or perhaps a little harder, to be done

before you can even have the privilege of being devoured by the
dragon. For example, you must first tame my two brazen-footed

and brazen-lunged bulls, which Vulcan, the wonderful
blacksmith, made for me. There is a furnace in each of their