who in their evil snatched the people into headlong peril. These too being despised, their wonted madness rises again, nor do they only join in rites: they mingle fellowships, dedicate unshorn groves, and restore altars. Yet their deeds do not go unharmed: they are pressed with servitude and tremble before King Chushan-rishathaim, who then gave laws where an island divides the twin rivers, separating the Persians from the Assyrian boundary, restraining the subdued for the returning years eight. At last Judaea groaned over her deserved guilt and, prostrate, asks the Lord; who, broken by His friendly power, restored to the trembling the comforts of life: for a saviour is sent and is at hand, and offers salvation to the people, and as a warrior wipes the sad cares from their breast. He was Othniel, born of Kenaz, the hero, strong with his brother Caleb, but younger in age.
The Spirit of the Lord lifted him up, renowned for the gift of valour, and set him sublime in a lofty seat. He, strong and faithful to God, took away the perils from the conquered and compelled the trembling king to serve. In such affairs Judaea prospered through many years and was subject to no treachery. But after the prince, his life's course run out, lay down, the people gladly restore the ancient rites; the times are changed, and war and servitude press hard. The peoples gather, whom King Eglon led — the Ammonites and Moabites together and the mighty Amalekites — and they overthrow the Hebrew battle-line with an iron hail, and tear away the very sceptres of the Phoenicians as victors. The leaders are surrendered, who seek to escape death, and, having endured ten lords and eight harvests.
The nation, bent by these evils, shudders at what it had done and demands God, who alone forgives crimes. Forthwith one is chosen to take the sceptre, Ehud: he, exerting himself with both hands by the strength of his right hand, felt his left hand degenerate under no burden (i.e., he was left-handed). When he brought the allies' gifts to the victor, secretly girt beneath his garment with a two-edged sword, and being admitted, then, propped up, he adores the feeble king; for his limbs, slack with their cushions, wavered so far that with a moderate fall he might collapse. He affirms that there remains for him something he wishes to say, and asks the crowded throng of attendants to withdraw. It is granted, and the barbarian leader, sitting in the midst of the hall, rises and, drawn near, joins himself with his whole body;
and after the throng of the faithful had withdrawn far off, he snatches the sword from his thigh, which he had covered with his garment, and buried it all the way to the hilt through the king's belly. He springs away from here and leaves the iron in the wound, closing the thresholds and the proud doorposts behind the chiefs. But the servants wonder that their lord, accustomed to come forth to his duties, stands alone in the silent chamber, that perhaps he is emptying the burden of his belly with bowels withdrawn, secret, while he avoids the gaze of the assembled throng. And now, mindful of his deed, Ehud rouses his allies to war and mingles the terrible sounds of the trumpets: hastily moving the standards, he closes the banks of the Jordan, lest anyone be able to cross by its shallow streams. And when he had laid low ten thousand with hard iron, he restored to the allies their lost name and glory.
Thereafter wars are silent, battles cause no commotion, and the weapons rested for eight times ten years. After this Shamgar, proud with equal valour, ruled the Jewish peoples and left them illustrious. But while the joys of peace are nourished in untroubled affairs, the grim nation loathes God and, with vain prayer to wretched deities whom He had conquered, consecrates altars. Therefore they are exercised with punishments and pay penalties worthy of their crime. Jabin, the royal hero, with a Canaanite band gathered from the youth of Hazor, fights with Sisera as commander and prince of the army, and fills the iron battle-lines with nine hundred chariots. And although he draws immense squadrons in a faithful column, more is wrought by the terror he has sought: for with the flying axle the four-footed hoof shakes the crumbling field with its galloping sound.
The men of Jerusalem are conquered far and wide as the Canaanite rampages, and for twice ten years they pass through every sorrowful thing in December (i.e., in dark seasons). At no other time does Deborah, a prophetess, reign, whose husband was Lapidoth, whose seat was Mt. Tabor (Metibile), bearing laws to the peoples, leaning against the trunk of a palm. She summons the chief Barak from the city Kedesh and, instructed by the admonitions of God, charges twice five thousand to stand against the squadrons of Sisera. He fears and asks the prophetess as his companion in the war, unaware that the palm of so great an undertaking would be lacking to him, if he should call her likewise to the camp: but the woman, by sex alone, takes up new tasks and moves chosen cohorts through the barbarian fields to the river Kishon, which, coming with downward current, rolls rocks and, swelling, rejoices to overwhelm its banks.
And now the phalanxes came within a spear-cast, when the Lord — in whom is the power by which He changes the stars, by which the earth trembles, by which lightning blazes in the clouds, by which He moves the uncertain sea with retreating effort — with terror sent in, puts Sisera to flight; he, headlong in his ruin, leaves his chariots and, seizing every byway, abandoned the youth doomed to fall in the midst of the battle. And driven by thirst — for he had fled the enemy on foot — he asks Jael for a drink; soon, covered with a covering, a woman's hide, he hastens to live by the gift; but Jael, willing to win praise, scorns the sluggish kind and, hastening, breaks through the man's hollow temples with a peg. He, seized by chill death, his brain flowing, breathes out his slender life with pierced crown. Then the leaders sing psalms to the Thunderer in like speech:
"Whoever you are who are renowned in a kingdom, who govern great cities, who as satraps or who bear sceptres second to the king, bowed low venerate God. Give worthy songs to the Eternal; for the Lord wishes to compel you to nothing else — He who shakes the lands, who shakes the rocks, who moves the sea with His breath and furrows the blackening clouds with thunder, who raises the lofty from the lowly, who changes the great. Sing, you sweet-sounding choirs; let hills and groves answer, and let the air renew the praises with tinklings. Forthwith let the murmurs of all things harmonize with your voice. The Lord regarded those whom He had abandoned and, when they were sorely broken, restored to them dominion and recovered them from the midst of the foe." Therefore there is wondrous rest through four times ten years. And while it enjoys good things, again with guilt returning, the things that had been condemned become pleasing;
for in their gladness they set up idols and abandon the name of God and His deity. Whom the offended Lord scattered for seven years and bade them, fearful, serve Midian. They dare not commit themselves to the field, nor bring their breasts to meet the foe, but rejoice only to hide themselves within walls: they only secure camps and lofty fortifications out of fear, and hidden in hollow vaults they grow pale even so. Then all the cattle begin to be seized, then all the estates to be burned, and nothing but punishment to be left within the enclosures.
Therefore, destitute and fearing famine and the sword alike, they returned to the Lord God, who is bent by the suppliant crowd and sends a seer bearing pious commands, that at last, mindful of these matters and of the recent war, they should look back and worship the Lord, who, with favouring deity, recalled His beloved people from the Egyptian city, lest again, while they burn altars with forbidden flames, they should not always heedlessly run into the wrath of the deity. Then the messenger of God sat beneath a pleasant oak and, while Gideon was threshing grain, presses him with these words: "Up, come, break off delays! The Lord has bidden you take up the sceptre, by which you may rescue the people from deceit." He shows that the Lord, hostile on every side with biting words, was poising overly grim ruins;
nay, that the people, now with no soldier, weary, and he himself, too little strong, could not stand firm in war. He is urged to serve God, who with lofty strength terrifies manifold battle-lines by invincible deity. He assents to the commands and asks the holy one to a meal; a kid is chosen, which, filled with milk alone, softer than all, was wandering, ignorant of grass; soon unleavened cakes made of snowy fine flour are set out: these, the youth being admonished, he himself, stretching out his hand, touched from the topmost of the staff and poured them upon a nearby rock, and left the man in the midst of his speech. Therefore, when Gideon perceived and revolved with pious mind that the Lord's minister had flitted before his eyes, immediately he raises an altar consecrated to the Lord and set a name upon the place and called it Peace.
Admonished by nocturnal visions, he overthrows the Gentile temples and tears the groves up from their deep root. And, lest his profane father bring contrary quarrels, by night, silent, he overturns the ill-founded things, setting up at the overthrown temples a young man (with) a bullock. After these things, when they are discovered and lie open, and the sudden ruins inflamed their spirits, the author of the deed is sought throughout the walls, and Gideon is shown to have laid low the groves. It is demanded that Joash give up his son for the crime; he, refusing, recalls that the gods are avengers for themselves and ought, if they exist and live, to defend their own. Here the Spirit of the Lord strengthens Gideon for battle, and now the trumpets sound; the horn-trumpet gives the signal. The Lord is prayed to, that to the singing fleece of wool the heavenly dews should flow in the night season:
and without delay it grew thoroughly wet and, when pressed, filled a basin; then he set out another thing in turn, and the dry wool did not feel the frosty moisture of the wet ground. To these is added another sign: that He bid twice ten thousand of the people, and two, of the fearful, return again, and that the sum of those to fight be set at ten thousand. This too, by admonition, He diminishes, lest the crowd gathered, trusting in its own strength, should not discern the arms of the Lord. So the prince of the youths leads the battle-line down to the river, and bids them lap the flowing waters in the manner of a dog, that he might have allies of glad valour. Three hundred men pleased Him; for the rest of the crowd, sluggish, did not take the shown taste, [destined] to return to their own homes, as though ignorant of battle.
Relying on this band, he brings war against as many thousands as men cannot count, for whom by skilled craft it is the custom to reckon up sums with fingers extended: on this side a battle-line of horsemen mingled with companies of foot, on that side countless camels with grim mass. But Gideon, hastening with his servant Phurah following, seeks the enemy camp and in the night, screened by darkness, goes down, and surveying the position and the minds and spirits, he heard a certain man telling his comrade dreams which, ill-asleep with waking sense, he had noted. For it seemed that he beheld a loaf rolled toward himself, such as barley makes whenever wheat is denied, and that it heaped up various forms through the camp, through the column, until it came through the midst of the rampart's defences and deeply, with its weight, fell upon the seat of the king.
These portents they sang to be of blood, an augury, and they declare that the end of Midian had come. Thereupon, after the youth, having venerated the Lord, departed, then, the dreams being made known to his men, more sublime he begins to unfold them, and now leads his band in a threefold column. He puts horn weapons (trumpets) and lamps in their hands and bids himself be an example of toils to his men, and that they, sending up thanks to God, perform the first beginnings of the battle, that the Lord be not lacking, with whom as prince they might conquer. Now the first hour of night had changed the watches, when swiftly they rush upon the gates and tear away the closed bolts and fill the trumpets with windy blasts; thence they whirl the pitchers, which, shaken with great force, burst apart, and rouse leaps and with resounding bronze give out sounds and lift their broken voices to the stars.
Lines of flames, stretched out on the left, flash, and overcome the night with much radiating light. Shaken by this din, the minds, the mind terrified in all of them: by whatever gate is given, they rush and, terrified, leave the camp. Soon all Judaea unites and follows the scattering foe; part seizes the well-watered springs and hoarse streams, that the hostile crowd, scattered by fear, parched in its thirsting veins, rushing on, may run into the arms of the guards. Nor did they fall by tricks of such great worth; for in a headlong column the chiefs of Midian come, Oreb and the violent Zeeb (Axes), and take up iron at once instead of water; and although the envy of valour had tormented those who had been far off and were lacking in the common praise, yet by speech and suppliant words Gideon softened it, because they held the twin monuments of the leaders (the heads of Oreb and Zeeb).
He is spurned on account of the remaining course of the half-finished contest. And the hostile kings too are said to be alive; yet he suspends those who are to be punished and, threatening, withdraws. Then he completes the work begun, clings to the fleeing, and finds the Sabaeans pitching camp at Carcor; for they crowded the column with four times ten thousand men after the slaughter in which a hundred thousand had fallen by the sword, and twice ten at once: this number was renewing the wars. But the whole nation, entangled by its own deserts, falls. Zebah the leader, after the deaths of so many of his own, and Zalmunna flee; for their mind, overcome by peril, clung, coming to the mockeries of an extreme lot. For Gideon leads the captives likewise one by one and displays them to the men who, long since with grim murmur, mocked him as conquered when he made his request, with foolish guffaws.
Without delay, the guilty men's limbs are dragged through briars, and the unshorn thorn-bushes are bedewed with the men's blood. Nay more, lest there be any traces of so great a crime, the city is overturned by the sword and falls, and the threatening towers, torn out from their depths, drew a long ruin. After this he bids the kings be in the open, whom the crowd of wondering people closes in on every side; then he bade them tell what and how great men they had laid low in slaughter, those proud ones by whose hand Judaea perishes. They said they had been so great that the splendour of their forms proclaimed them sons of kings. He turns over his own brothers in his fraternal heart, observing the appearance of the slain, as if it cleaves to his body. Then, thus moved, he says: "I testify to you, holy Almighty of gods, and by the lofty deeds of your right hand, that you give a memorable reward to a woman's merit." Tola follows him.
who was for twice ten years and three, vexed by no plague of war. Then Jair of Gilead flourishes, and, equally mighty in much quiet, holds the sceptre for twice ten years ... very rich, a father rejoicing in thrice ten offspring, noble. He holds the kingdom for twice eleven years. After whose death new idols swiftly grow; for besides the accustomed altars of the demon Astarte, and the gods of Assyria or Sidon and Moab, Judaea prepared for herself rites unknown before. On account of these, pressed by the Ammonites in hard wars, worn out by perils, she dragged on twice nine winters. From on high at last she reflects and at last revolves that God is rather to be appeased, who by His supreme deity can soothe even a long-standing guilt of the people. And they renew the pious laws of God:
for forthwith they cast away the altars and all the gods, and shatter the stony idols, destined to remain mindful of the Thunderer through the ages. Meanwhile the order is changed in its distinct courses, and the people choose a leader who, with a firm soldiery, may be able to govern the cities in war or in peace. A certain Jephthah pleased them, one born a Gileadite, whose nobility drew a stain from his mother, who, prostituted everywhere to men, lived beneath an arch (a brothel). His brothers drove him from home, because, a discoloured heir lacking a certain father, he clung to his mother's affairs. Fearing them, he fled and among the shady hills found companions of crimes and gained possession of plunder. But on the other side Ammon was waging wars, pressing the Jebusite Jerusalemites; for Judaea lacked a leader and, weakened, gave easy triumphs.
Young men are sent who should meet the famous Jephthah for war and call him to battle with flattering persuasion. At first he refuses the aid: soon he joins his ranks and, holding command, drives off the Ammonite foes. But first, prepared to extinguish the wars by parley, he gave commands to envoys, who, then returning, report that nothing has been accomplished and say that the enemy presses on. Thus, when the favour of the longed-for peace had been laid aside, Jephthah rushes into iron and, having prayed to the Lord, vows great vows, sure to cause much grief to the parent. Forthwith, that whoever should first meet him as he returned should become a fitting victim to the eternal Thunderer for ever. These deeds done, he advances exulting and, with chosen soldiery, moves the standards and routs the enemies, whom, finishing off in bloody slaughter, he speedily overthrows twice ten cities:
but while he returns, while he himself is the messenger of his own praise, and a long victory follows as he comes with procession, his daughter, who alone kept her father's affairs, runs to meet him and sings sweetly with the assembled throng and lightly rises on tiptoe to kisses: whom, when the father saw, he rends his bound garments and turns his eyes, beholding evils, to weeping. "Alas, victory deadly to my fates! This vow was rather hostile! Whither, daughter, do you run, whither do you rush? This is the last thing — that I address you, this is it. For while, moving the standards, I asked the Lord for defences, you, made a victim to God, are placed at the holy altars." But the maiden, secure of herself and of a blessed death, more gently exults and amid the perils sports. Nay, she even entreats that her resolve be fixed, and that her parent not doubt nor hesitate.
And she prays for a sparing of time, in which she might be able to bewail her youth with tears. It is granted, and two months are bestowed on the exulting one. So the prescribed day was at hand, and the father-priest was sending the virgin's mind up to heaven for the Lord. Amid these things the fury of the people rushes to arms, and madness and devouring envy urge on kindred battle-lines, while it carps at the pious deeds of the man. He himself slew himself (i.e., the enemy slew themselves): for thirty-two thousand fall by the iron from the peoples — yours, O Ephraim — and Jephthah, victorious in war, deserved even civil triumphs. Judaea changes its leader, widowed of the former. Ibzan, formerly an Israelite, was afterward called leader; chosen, he received the reins of the country as governor. A father of many: for forty were born from lawful wedlock.
So great a hope of grandchildren, holding thrice ten brides at one time (his sons' wives). Seven years being completed, while he judged, he died and, covered by the tomb, left worldly things. Elon the Zebulonite follows and holds the sceptre, a ruler who relinquished his governance after twin lustres (ten years). To him swiftly succeeds the prince Abdon of Pirathon, father of thirty daughters; for his male offspring was forty, though the parent was far richer in the number of his bastards born of a substitute mother. He holds the judgeship of the people for twice four years. And while the sole worship of God flourished, perpetual peace was preserved for the glad; but when idols were again adored by the men, they stirred up bloody war; for the Lord subjected all to the arms of the warring and made them pay penalties for eight lustres (forty years).
In those times the young man Manoah was in his prime and not yet a father; for, joined to a barren wife, he longed in his vows to rejoice in the honours of children. To this man's wife the Lord, gliding down above the heavens, stood by, promising the gifts of an unwonted birth, commanding that the one born should not pour out wine and strong drink, nor allow himself to pluck spotted things with open bite, for this reason — that he should be happier than all mothers and compensate the loss of number in one alone. "For a noble valour shall be wrought, and it shall be lawful for none to violate his unconquered head or to harm it with iron, chosen from the fruitful womb of her who has borne, that he may be able to save the people and, beating back war, may turn its losses fiercely upon the hostile companies." He came and she confessed it to her husband;
For the fiery countenance of the man, and the radiant glory of God shining forth, was seen; and when she asked the name of God, the Thunderer remained silent. 'A Nazarite shall he be who is born of you,' he said. Manoah aids his wife with joined vows, praying that the holy one who had been sent might unfold the pious words and kindle a new light, by which one might know what befits the boy who, though not yet born, is already to be loved. Straightway he is sent down from heaven, and, disclosing new things, hastens forward; and seeing the bride lying upon the grass, with her husband apart, at once he stands close at hand. She rises and runs swiftly to her man. What she had seen she begins to tell. He follows trembling, rejoicing to behold the holy one, and he sees the face shining with surpassing light. He approaches and asks the man, if he speaks the truth, to set forth what deeds he wishes done.
To them with serene face the angel declares that it is lawful for him to be reared apart from all things; let the one to be created not bring his lips near to anything unclean, nor drink wine or strong drink, nor take any cups by which he might drive the mind from its right senses. Exulting, the young man offers the holy one a kid to take, then, instructed rather to present the accustomed gifts to the Thunderer, asks that, once received, he might desire them in place of a gift for life. They ask, moreover, to learn the name of the Lord, which no one can search out, for it is marvellous. Then the young man brings forth the libations entrusted to him, setting the offspring of the goat at the holy altars. Soon, rising in the flames to the bright stars, the column struck the upper air and held the heavens; through it the conspicuous holy one was ascending the clouds. Without delay, her womb swells with the promised offspring.
And the longed-for offspring is given, whom by a fixed name the fathers called Samson: this pleased them both. And while as a boy he first plants his faltering steps, he advances with God accompanying him; for the Spirit was his guide, before whom the earth trembles, to whom the stars are obedient. Relying on him, he passed through the camps of Dan and of Thal. Then, his body now coming to manhood, he came to Timnah, where he is captivated by the radiance of a beautiful girl. He speaks to her parents; he demands her as his wife: they dissemble and deny it is lawful, because the woman is not born of their own tribes. The more sharply he presses, affirming and swearing that his parents, whom he holds dear, were pleased by it: the sought-for girl is wedded to her wooer. And while he advances through the green vines with their joyful tendrils, and moves his silent gaze over each thing —
behold, a lion, as if reigning over the wilds of Lehi, goading itself with the lash of its tail amid a horrid-sounding roar and shaking out its muscles, comes to meet him with gaping jaws. Receiving it — for indeed it was no labour — he flings it apart with the onset of his right hand and scatters it, torn limb from limb. Endowed with the gift of silent valour, he conceals the deed and, content with his own mind as witness, rejoices. After some days he himself returns and seeks his prey: but here — a thing horrible and marvellous to tell — he sees honey to be in the midst of the lion's jaws, mingled with golden comb. This he straightway takes away, and, having tasted it himself, more confidently offers it to his excellent brothers, the young man. And now he had begun to be a terror to many because of the surpassing renown of his valour. Therefore he goes forth with thirty men of outstanding valour accompanying him together;
then a riddle is set before all, and, putting them to the test, he jests much at their ignorance, that they should at once produce garments woven with snowy thread, if they could not declare the truth in speech. Beginning, he winds his varied words in a figure: 'From the eater came forth common food, and sweeter than the comb it flowed from the body of the mighty one.' When no one could disclose this with truth-telling lips, and after seven days the penalty was returning upon the friends, in confusion they wove deceits, and, hating their comrade, came to their own townswoman, whom we said before had pleased the man in marriage. And threateningly they keep asking that, when Samson has been deceived, she announce the secret; and if she does not do it, they testify that flames will be the avengers. Terrified, she soothes the hard heart of her man with womanly weeping; for he keeps hidden what is sealed up, and, recalling it, asks why she, a chatterer, demands what was not told to his father and mother.
But what would womanly weeping not strain to compel? He is overcome and lays bare the secrets of his silent mind, and she teaches them to the men. On the seventh light of day, as the setting world grew pale with doubtful light, the comrades reply: 'What is sweeter than honey, or what can be stronger than the lion whose mane quivers?' The hero at once recognizes that it is his wife's treachery, and at the same time: 'O young men, this opinion is not your own: for unless the woman had enticed me with coaxing persuasion, the question with its mingled causes would not have been discovered.' Thereupon the Spirit of God sends the young man among the enemy; exulting, he beheads thirty, and as victor holds all the spoils of those who fell, and offers their garments to his own men, as he had said. And little by little the seeds of his powers grow in the man;
for his father-in-law, led by the desire of a wavering mind, denies his wife to the young man and himself gives her, once refused, to a stranger, lest afterwards, kindled and fierce, he should perhaps demand her back; and he promises the younger daughter, if perchance he should wish it. 'By the greatest Avenger!' he cries, and from his grim eyes threatens monstrous things, intending long and much to avenge himself with destruction for such deeds. Where he might rage, he finds a means: nimbly he catches three hundred foxes, and binding their tails to one another, joining them two by two in order, he sends them here and there through the olive groves and vineyards of a pleasant hill, driving them, and attaches blazing torches to their tails. Scarcely let loose, they sought the fertile fields, wherever they hasten, dragging wide-spread fires.
At once the devouring fire, increased by the blasts of the winds, rolls on: the flames mount up, and, drawn along, follow. Nor did the stratagems remain hidden. The throng of farmers, gathered together, slaughtered by such grievous evils, assembles, and the young men cast into the flames the wife of long ago, and her father himself, and burned the roofs of the houses. So then that which was punishment became a mound; that which was flame, a sepulchre. The grievous vengeance sharpens him, for he threatens much, and gives ruin to his enemies and their own people with vast slaughter. Meanwhile three thousand young men of the tribe of Judah grow hot with hatred, that with so great a soldiery they might destroy Samson and that so many thousands might assail one man with the sword. But the young man at once takes up arms, and entreats his comrades, who press upon him, to let the battle be undertaken for his glory's sake. As he wished, faith was kept: then they bring the bonds of tow.
which they bind round his arms with ninefold knots; he is driven from the rock. He arrives at the borders of Lehi, and the gathered crowd rejoiced to behold the captive. And while, greedy, they stretch out their hands and threaten with horrid-sounding uproar, he draws his hands and bursts the linen bonds; then, straining, he grasps the curved jawbone of a sluggish ass — for what does anger not supply? With this (a marvellous thing) he both strikes and slays a thousand men. And when thirst warned the young man with parched lung to hope for the help of God, who from no seed creates all things, for whom, when he willed, a parched thing has become a fountain, who by his command waters even dry places or dries up rivers, who amid vast crags and the burning desert loosed flowing streams from the hard rocks:
without delay, a crack opening in the light bone of the jaw flows forth, and the stream quivers with fleeing current. The young man is satisfied, having drunk from the heavenly flood. He does wondrous things and beholds great things, he earns praise that is to be praised, by whose command Judaea, mighty for twice ten cycles, shone forth. With this man as leader and soldier, trusting, he then departed and came to Gaza, where a vile woman was selling her wounded nights to hot-blooded young men. He went in to her: she was soon the first cause of peril. Behold, a Gazaean band flies up and barricades the hard gates and sets iron bolts, keeping him shut in, eager to make sport of their captive. About the middle of the night, dreams leave Samson; roused, he rages monstrously:
then, striking the thresholds, he tears the twin doorposts from the creaking hinge, and, slipping beneath the burden, swiftly carries it far off, up to the heights of the mountain set opposite. And, stronger after perils — from this point — the warrior is captured by love of Delilah. To her all the men resorted whom envy drove to overcome the unconquered man, so that, joined to him in bed, with sweet enticements she might soothe him when softened, and then learn what fomentations renew his strength, what seeds nourish so great a vigour: whether he is made so strong by nature or by art. If she should sing forth such words, they affirm she is to be rewarded with a gift. The young man, entreated, says cunningly: 'If I be bound with seven sinews which moisture has not yet deserted, I shall lose all strength and stand forth more cowardly than all.' That woman, herself deceiving the deceiver, equips her own men. The young man is bound tight with the hard strength of the sinews,