Upon this, Enothea fixt her self between us, and moving her head a while; "I," said she, "am the only one that can give remedy for that disease; and not to delay it, let him sleep with me to night; and next morning, examine how vigorous I shall have made him.
"'All Nature's works my magick powers obey,
The blooming earth shall wither and decay,
And when I please, agen be fresh and gay.
From rugged rocks, I make sweet waters flow,
And raging billows to me humbly bow.
With rivers, winds, when I command, obey,
And at my feet, their fans contracted lay,
Tygers and dragons too, my will obey.
But these are small, when of my magick verse,
Descending Cynthia does the power confess.
When my commands, make trembling Phœbus reign,
His fiery steeds, their journey back again.
Such power have charms, by whose prevailing aid
The fury of the raging bulls was laid.
The Heaven-born Circe, with her magic song,
Ulysses's men, did into monsters turn.
Proteus, with this assum'd, what shape he wou'd.
I, who this art so long have understood,
Can send proud Ida's top into the main,
And make the billows bear it up again.'"
I shook with fear at such a romantick promise, and began more intensively to view the old woman: Upon which, she cry'd out, "O Enothea, be as good as your word"; when, carefully wiping her hands, she lay down on the bed, and half smother'd me with kisses.
Enothea, in the middle of the altar, plac'd a turf-table, which she heapt with burning coals, and her old crack cup (for sacrifice) repair'd with temper'd pitch; when she had fixt it to the smoaking-wall from which she took it; putting on her habit, she plac'd a kettle by the fire, and took down a bag that hung near her, in which, a bean was kept for that use, and a very aged piece of a hog's forehead, with the print of a hundred cuts out; when opening the bag, she threw me a part of the bean, and bid me carefully strip it. I obey her command, and try, without daubing my fingers, to deliver the grain from its nasty coverings; but she, blaming my dullness, snatcht it from me, and skilfully tearing its shells with her teeth, spit the black morsels from her, that lay like dead flies on the ground. How ingenious is poverty, and what strange arts will hunger teach? The priestess seem'd so great a lover of this sort of life, that her humour appear'd in every thing about her, and her hut might be truly term'd, sacred to poverty.
Here shines no glittering ivory set with gold,
No marble covers the deluded mold,
By its own wealth deluded; but the shrine
With simple natural ornaments does shine.
Round Cere's bower, but homely willows grow,
Earthen are all the sacred bowls they know.
Osier the dish, sacred to use divine:
Both course and stain'd, the jug that holds the wine.
Mud mixt with straw, make a defending fort,
The temple's brazen studs, are knobs of dirt.
With rush and reed, is thatcht the hut it self,
Where, besides what is on a smoaky shelf,
Ripe service-berries into garlands bound,
And savory-bunches with dry'd grapes are found.
Such a low cottage Hecale confin'd,
Low was her cottage, but sublime her mind.
Her bounteous heart, a grateful praise shall crown,
And muses make immortal her renown.
After which, she tasted of the flesh, and hanging the rest, old as her self, on the hook again; the rotten stool on which she was mounted breaking, threw her into the fire, her fall spilt the kettle, and what it held put out the fire; she burnt her elbow, and all her face was hid with the ashes that her fall had rais'd.
Thus disturb'd, I arose, and laughing, took her up; immediately, lest any thing shou'd hinder the offering, she ran for new fire to the neighbourhood, and had hardly got to the door, e're I was set upon by three sacred geese, that daily, I believe, about that time were fed by the old woman; they made an hideous noise, and, surrounding me, one tears my coat, another my shoes, while their furious captain made nothing of doing so by my legs; till seeing my self in danger, I began to be in earnest, and snatching up one of the feet of our little table, made the valiant animal feel my arm'd hand; nor content with a slight blow or two, but reveng'd my self with its death.
Such were the birds Alcides did subdue,
That from his conquering arm t'ward Heaven flew:
Such sure the harpyes were which poyson strow'd,
On cheated Phineus's false deluding food.
Loud lamentations shake the trembling air,
The powers above the wild confusion share,
Horrours disturb the orders of the sky,
And frighted stars beyond their courses fly.
By this time the other two had eat up the pieces of the bean that lay scatter'd on the floor, and having lost their leader, return'd to the temple. When glad of the booty and my revenge, I heal'd the slight old woman's anger, I design'd to make off; and taking up my cloaths, began my march; nor had I reacht the door, e're I saw Enothea bringing in her hand an earthen pot fill'd with fire; upon which I retreated, and throwing down my cloaths, fixt my self in the entry, as if I were impatiently expecting her coming.
Enothea, entring, plac'd the fire, that with broken sticks she had got together, and having heapt more wood upon those, began to excuse her stay, that her friend wou'd not let her go before she had, against the laws of drinking, taken off three healths together. When looking about her, "What," said she, "have you been doing in my absence? Where's the bean?"