the source, and returned to her quickly from among the teeth of the
serpents, bringing with him of the waters, all unwilling--nay!
warning him to depart away and not molest them.

And she, receiving the urn with great joy, ran back quickly that she
might deliver it to Venus, and yet again satisfied not the angry
goddess. "My child!" she said, "in this one thing further must thou
serve me. Take now this tiny casket, and get thee down even unto
hell, and deliver it to Proserpine. Tell her that Venus would have
of her beauty so much at least as may suffice for but one day's use,
that beauty she possessed erewhile being foreworn and spoiled,
through her tendance upon the sick-bed of her son; and be not slow in
returning."

And Psyche perceived there the last ebbing of her fortune--that she
was now thrust openly [87] upon death, who must go down, of her own
motion, to Hades and the Shades. And straightway she climbed to the
top of an exceeding high tower, thinking within herself, "I will cast
myself down thence: so shall I descend most quickly into the kingdom
of the dead." And the tower again, broke forth into speech:
"Wretched Maid! Wretched Maid! Wilt thou destroy thyself? If the
breath quit thy body, then wilt thou indeed go down into Hades, but
by no means return hither. Listen to me. Among the pathless wilds
not far from this place lies a certain mountain, and therein one of
hell's vent-holes. Through the breach a rough way lies open,
following which thou wilt come, by straight course, to the castle of
Orcus. And thou must not go empty-handed. Take in each hand a
morsel of barley-bread, soaked in hydromel; and in thy mouth two
pieces of money. And when thou shalt be now well onward in the way
of death, then wilt thou overtake a lame ass laden with wood, and a