Jephthah and Other Mysteries

94 MYSTERIES: Dogs with men’s faces, and we beat them off With scabbard, and the hideous path wound on. And these perplexed our goings, for no light Gleamed through the bare pine-ruins lava-struck, Nor even the hellish fire of Etna’s maw. But suddenly we came upon a pool Dank, dark, and stagnant, evil to the touch, Oozing towards us, but sucked suddenly, Silently, horribly, by slow compulsion Into the slipping sand, and vanishing, Whereon we sawa little boat appear, And in it such a figure as we knew Was Death. But she, intolerant of delay, Hailed him. The vessel floated to our feet, And Death was not. She leapt within, and bent Her own white shoulders to the thwart, and bade Me steer, and keep stern watch with sword unsheathed For fear of something that her soul had seen Above. And thus upon the oily black Silent swift river we sailed out to reach Its source, no longer feeling as compelled, But led by some incomprehensible Passion. And here lewd fishes snapped at us, - And watersnakes writhed silently toward Our craft. But these I fought against, and smote Head from foul body, to our further ill, For frightful jelly-monsters grew apace, And all the water grew one slimy mass Of crawling tentacles, My sword was swift That slashed and slew them, chiefly to protect