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Tanglewood Tales-Part22_NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE(1804-1864)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Often, likewise, she encountered fauns, who looked like

sunburnt country people, except that they had hairy ears, and



little horns upon their foreheads, and the hinder legs of

goats, on which they gamboled merrily about the woods and



fields. They were a frolicsome kind of creature but grew as sad

as their cheerful dispositions would allow, when Ceres inquired



for her daughter, and they had no good news to tell. But

sometimes she same suddenly upon a rude gang of satyrs, who had



faces like monkeys, and horses' tails behind them, and who were

generally dancing in a very boisterous manner, with shouts of



noisy laughter. When she stopped to question them, they would

only laugh the louder, and make new merriment out of the lone



woman's distress. How unkind of those ugly satyrs! And once,

while crossing a solitary sheep pasture, she saw a personage



named Pan, seated at the foot of a tall rock, and making music

on a shepherd's flute. He, too, had horns, and hairy ears, and



goats' feet; but, being acquainted with Mother Ceres, he

answered her question as civilly as he knew how, and invited



her to taste some milk and honey out of a wooden bowl. But

neither could Pan tell her what had become of Proserpina, any



better than the rest of these wild people.

And thus Mother Ceres went wandering about for nine long days



and nights, finding no trace of Proserpina, unless it were now

and then a withered flower; and these she picked up and put in



her bosom, because she fancied that they might have fallen from

her poor child's hand. All day she traveledonward through the



hot sun; and, at night again, the flame of the torch would

redden and gleam along the pathway, and she continued her



search by its light, without ever sitting down to rest.

On the tenth day, she chanced to espy the mouth of a cavern



within which (though it was bright noon everywhere else) there

would have been only a dusky twilight; but it so happened that



a torch was burning there. It flickered, and struggled with the

duskiness, but could not half light up the gloomycavern with



all its melancholyglimmer. Ceres was resolved to leave no spot

without a search; so she peeped into the entrance of the cave,



and lighted it up a little more, by holding her own torch

before her. In so doing, she caught a glimpse of what seemed to



be a woman, sitting on the brown leaves of the last autumn, a

great heap of which had been swept into the cave by the wind.



This woman (if woman it were) was by no means so beautiful as

many of her sex; for her head, they tell me, was shaped very



much like a dog's, and, by way of ornament, she wore a wreath

of snakes around it. But Mother Ceres, the moment she saw her,



knew that this was an odd kind of a person, who put all her

enjoyment in being miserable, and never would have a word to



say to other people, unless they were as melancholy and

wretched as she herself delighted to be.



"I am wretched enough now," thought poor Ceres, "to talk with

this melancholy Hecate, were she ten times sadder than ever she



was yet." So she stepped into the cave, and sat down on the

withered leaves by the dog-headed woman's side. In all the



world, since her daughter's loss, she had found no other

companion.



"O Hecate," said she, "if ever you lose a daughter, you will

know what sorrow is. Tell me, for pity's sake, have you seen my



poor child Proserpina pass by the mouth of your cavern?"

"No," answered Hecate, in a cracked voice, and sighing betwixt



every word or two; "no, Mother Ceres, I have seen nothing of

your daughter. But my ears, you must know, are made in such a



way, that all cries of distress and affright all over the world

are pretty sure to find their way to them; and nine days ago,



as I sat in my cave, making myself very miserable, I heard the

voice of a young girl, shrieking as if in great distress.



Something terrible has happened to the child, you may rest

assured. As well as I could judge, a dragon, or some other



cruel monster, was carrying her away."

"You kill me by saying so," cried Ceres, almost ready to faint.



"Where was the sound, and which way did it seem to go?"




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