between us twain will be unseemly strife. For I will seize thee and cast
thee into murky Tartarus, into the darkness of doom where none is of
avail. Nor shall thy father or mother redeem thee to the light: nay,
under earth shalt thou roam, a reiver among folk fordone."

Then Hermes answered with words of craft: "Apollo, what ungentle word
hast thou spoken? And is it thy cattle of the homestead thou comest here
to seek? I saw them not, heard not of them, gave ear to no word of them:
of them I can tell no tidings, nor win the fee of him who tells. Not
like a lifter of cattle, a stalwart man, am I: no task is this of mine:
hitherto I have other cares; sleep, and mother's milk, and about my
shoulders swaddling bands, and warmed baths. Let none know whence this
feud arose! And verily great marvel among the Immortals it would be,
that a new-born child should cross the threshold after kine of the
homestead; a silly rede of thine. Yesterday was I born, my feet are
tender, and rough is the earth below. But if thou wilt I shall swear the
great oath by my father's head, that neither I myself am to blame, nor
have I seen any other thief of thy kine: be kine what they may, for I
know but by hearsay."

So spake he with twinkling eyes, and twisted brows, glancing hither and
thither, with long-drawn whistling breath, hearing Apollo's word as a
vain thing. Then lightly laughing spake Apollo the Far-darter:

"Oh, thou rogue, thou crafty one; verily methinks that many a time thou
wilt break into stablished homes, and by night leave many a man bare,
silently pilling through his house, such is thy speech to-day! And many
herdsmen of the steadings wilt thou vex in the mountain glens, when in
lust for flesh thou comest on the herds and sheep thick of fleece. Nay
come, lest thou sleep the last and longest slumber, come forth from thy