So she put a golden box into his hand, and directed him how to
apply the perfumed unguent which it contained, and where to

meet her at midnight.
"Only be brave," added she, "and before daybreak the brazen

bulls shall be tamed."
The young man assured her that his heart would not fail him. He

then rejoined his comrades, and told them what had passed
between the princess" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess and himself, and warned them to be in

readiness in case there might be need of their help. At the
appointed hour he met the beautiful Medea on the marble steps

of the king's palace. She gave him a basket, in which were the
dragon's teeth, just as they had been pulled out of the

monster's jaws by Cadmus, long ago. Medea then led Jason down
the palace steps, and through the silent streets of the city,

and into the royal pasture ground, where the two brazen-footed
bulls were kept. It was a starry night, with a bright gleam

along the eastern edge of the sky, where the moon was soon
going to show herself. After entering the pasture, the princess" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess

paused and looked around.
"There they are," said she, "reposing them. selves and chewing

their fiery cuds in that farthest corner of the field. It will
be excellent sport, I assure you, when they catch a glimpse of

your figure. My father and all his court delight in nothing so
much as to see a stranger trying to yoke them, in order to come

at the Golden Fleece. It makes a holiday in Colchis whenever
such a thing happens. For my part, I enjoy it immensely" target="_blank" title="ad.极大地，无限地">immensely. You

cannot imagine in what a mere twinkling of an eye their hot
breath shrivels a young man into a black cinder."

"Are you sure, beautiful Medea," asked Jason, "quite sure, that
the unguent in the gold box will prove a remedy against those

terrible burns?"
"If you doubt, if you are in the least afraid," said the

princess" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess, looking him in the face by the dim starlight, "you
had better never have been born than to go a step nigher to the

bulls."
But Jason had set his heart steadfastly on getting the Golden

Fleece; and I positively doubt whether he would have gone back
without it, even had he been certain of finding himself turned

into a red-hot cinder, or a handful of white ashes, the instant
he made a step farther. He therefore let go Medea's hand, and

walked boldly forward in the direction whither she had pointed.
At some distance before him he perceived four streams of fiery

vapor, regularly appearing and again vanishing, after dimly
lighting up the surroundingobscurity. These, you will

understand, were caused by the breath of the brazen bulls,
which was quietly stealing out of their four nostrils, as they

lay chewing their cuds.
At the first two or three steps which Jason made, the four

fiery streams appeared to gush out somewhat more plentifully;
for the two brazen bulls had heard his foot tramp, and were

lifting up their hot noses to snuff the air. He went a little
farther, and by the way in which the red vapor now spouted

forth, he judged that the creatures had got upon their feet.
Now he could see glowing sparks, and vivid jets of flame. At

the next step, each of the bulls made the pasture echo with a
terrible roar, while the burning breath, which they thus

belched forth, lit up the whole field with a momentary flash.
One other stride did bold Jason make; and, suddenly as a streak

of lightning, on came these fiery animals, roaring like
thunder, and sending out sheets of white flame, which so

kindled up the scene that the young man could discern every
object more distinctly than by daylight. Most distinctly of all

he saw the two horrible creatures galloping right down upon
him, their brazen hoofs rattling and ringing over the ground,

and their tails sticking up stiffly into the air, as has always
been the fashion with angry bulls. Their breath scorched the

herbage before them. So intensely hot it was, indeed, that it
caught a dry tree under which Jason was now standing, and set

it all in a light blaze. But as for Jason himself (thanks to
Medea's enchanted ointment), the white flame curled around his

body, without injuring him a jot more than if he had been made
of asbestos.

Greatly encouraged at finding himself not yet turned into a
cinder, the young man awaited the attack of the bulls. Just as

the brazen brutes fancied themselves sure of tossing him into
the air, he caught one of them by the horn, and the other by

his screwed-up tail, and held them in a gripe like that of an
iron vice, one with his right hand, the other with his left.

Well, he must have been wonderfully strong in his arms, to be
sure. But the secret of the matter was, that the brazen bulls

were enchanted creatures, and that Jason had broken the spell
of their fiery fierceness" target="_blank" title="n.凶恶，残忍">fierceness by his bold way of handling them.

And, ever since that time, it has been the favorite method of
brave men, when danger assails them, to do what they call "

taking the bull by the horns"; and to gripe him by the tail is
pretty much the same thing--that is, to throw aside fear, and

overcome the peril by despising it. It was now easy to yoke the
bulls, and to harness them to the plow, which had lain rusting

on the ground for a great many years gone by; so long was it
before anybody could be found capable of plowing that piece of

land. Jason, I suppose, had been taught how to draw a furrow by
the good old Chiron, who, perhaps, used to allow himself to be

harnessed to the plow. At any rate, our hero succeeded
perfectly well in breaking up the greensward; and, by the time

that the moon was a quarter of her journey up the sky, the
plowed field lay before him, a large tract of black earth,

ready to be sown with the dragon's teeth. So Jason scattered
them broadcast, and harrowed them into the soil with a

brush-harrow, and took his stand on the edge of the field,
anxious to see what would happen next.

"Must we wait long for harvest time?" he inquired of Medea, who
was now standing by his side.

"Whether sooner or later, it will be sure to come," answered
the princess" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess. "A crop of armed men never fails to spring up,

when the dragon's teeth have been sown."
The moon was now high aloft in the heavens, and threw its

bright beams over the plowed field, where as yet there was
nothing to be seen. Any farmer, on viewing it, would have said

that Jason must wait weeks before the green blades would peep
from among the clods, and whole months before the yellow grain

would be ripened for the sickle. But by and by, all over the
field, there was something that glistened in the moonbeams,

like sparkling drops of dew. These bright objects sprouted
higher, and proved to be the steel heads of spears. Then there

was a dazzling gleam from a vast number of polished brass
helmets, beneath which, as they grew farther out of the soil,

appeared the dark and bearded visages of warriors, struggling
to free themselves from the imprisoning earth. The first look

that they gave at the upper world was a glare of wrath and
defiance. Next were seen their bright breastplates; in every

right hand there was a sword or a spear, and on each left arm a
shield; and when this strange crop of warriors had but half

grown out of the earth, they struggled--such was their
impatience of restraint--and, as it were, tore themselves up by

the roots. Wherever a dragon's tooth had fallen, there stood a
man armed for battle. They made a clangor with their swords

against their shields, and eyed one another fiercely" target="_blank" title="ad.凶猛地，残忍地">fiercely; for they