have leafy boughs wherewith to shadow the altar, when I
see a portent dreadful and marvellous to tell. For the
first tree that I pull up from the soil, severing its roots, 5
from that tree trickle drops of black blood, staining the
earth with gore. For me, a freezing shudder palsies my
frame, and my chilled blood curdles with affright. Again
I go on to pluck the reluctant fibres of a second tree, and
thus probe the hidden cause to the bottom; as surely 10
from the bark of that second tree the black blood follows.
Much musing in my mind, I began to call on the nymphs