and to put your walls between you and death? Lo, these
are the men who demand our wives at the sword’s edge!
What god, what madness, has driven you to Italy? You
will not find the Atridæ here, nor Ulysses the forger of 15
speech. A hardy race even from the stock, we bring our
sons soon as born to the river’s side, and harden them with
the water’s cruel cold. Our boys spend long days in the
chase, and weary out the forest; their sport is to rein the
steed, and level shafts from the bow. Our youth, strong 20
to labour and schooled by want, subdues the earth with