Page:The omnibus of crime (1929).pdf/49

Joacim her husband, and all the kindred, because there was no dishonesty found in her.

From that day forth was Daniel had in great reputation in the sight of the people.

Publius Vergilius Maro

This is the story of Hercules and Cacus, as told by King Evander to his guest Æneas:

"These ceremonies, these ritual feasts, this altar of powerful divinity have not been set up by us through empty superstition or neglect of the old gods. We render sacrifice, my Trojan friend, because we were saved from deadly perils, and pay honour each year where honour is due. First of all, look at that rock-hung cliff; see how great masses of rock have been flung far apart and the mountain made desolate, how the boulders have left a great trail of ruin behind them. Here was a vast and yawning cavern, so deeply set that the sun's light could never penetrate it—the home of that dread figure Cacus, half man, half beast. The ground was always steaming with fresh slaughters, and, nailed to the insolent gates hung pale faces af men, grimly stained with blood. Vulcan was the father of this monster, and as Cacus moved his great bulk about, his mouth belched his father's deadly fires. But there came a time when help was brought to us in our longing through the coming of a god.

"For the great avenger came: Hercules, fresh from killing the three-formed Geryon, and proudly rich in spoils, drove the huge bulls this way in triumph—and his oxen filled the valley and the river-banks. But Cacus, with his wild robber's mind, determined that there should be no limit to his daring attempts in crime and cunning, bore off from the folds four splendid bulls and as many lovely heifers. And in order that their footprints might not give the true course away, he dragged them by the tails to his cave, and hid them beneath the dark rock, with the tracks of their journey pointing in the opposite direction. Thus, if anyone looked, no clues led to the cavern.

"In the meantime, when Hercules was moving his well-fed herds from their folds and getting ready for his departure, the oxen began to bellow at leaving, and all the woods were filled with their plaint and cry as they left the hills. One of the cows returned the call, and by lowing, where she was imprisoned in