And when he came
abreast of them he brandished his arms up and down, as a ship hoists and
lowers her yards, and shouted with his brazen throat like a trumpet from
off the hills: "You are pirates, you are robbers! If you dare land here,
you die."
Then the heroes cried: "We are no pirates. We are all good men and true;
and all we ask is food and water"; but the giant cried the more--
"You are robbers, you are pirates all; I know you; and if you land, you
shall die the death."
Then he waved his arms again as a signal, and they saw the people flying
inland, driving their flocks before them, while a great flame arose
among the hills. Then the giant ran up a valley and vanished; and the
heroes lay on their oars in fear.
But Medeia stood watching all, from under her steep black brows, with a
cunning smile upon her lips, and a cunning plot within her heart. At
last she spoke; "I know this giant. I heard of him in the East.
Hephaistos the Fire King made him, in his forge in AEtna beneath the
earth, and called him Talus, and gave him to Minos for a servant, to
guard the coast of Crete. Thrice a day he walks round the island, and
never stops to sleep; and if strangers land he leaps into his furnace,
which flames there among the hills; and when he is red hot he rushes on
them, and burns them in his brazen hands."
Then all the heroes cried, "What shall we do, wise Medeia? We must have
water, or we die of thirst.
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