Again the starry vault shone o’er his head.
To a court-yard he came; and there his eyes
Met with a sight that fill’d him with surprize:
For there, instead of ducks and hens, a brood
Of snakes and lizards crawl’d about for food,[89]
Which from her apron’s fold a maiden threw,
And call’d them to be fed in accents strange and new.
But all at once the maid, when she espied
The swain, rush’d back behind a porch, and cried
Stoutly for help: her speech brave Skirnir naught