household gods and of the "great gods" of their nation. The first land
they touched was the coast of Thrace, not far from Troy. AEneas
thought he would build a city and make a settlement here, as the
country had been, from early times, connected by ties of friendship
with his own. To obtain the blessing of heaven on an undertaking of
such importance, he set about performing religious services in honor
of his mother Venus and the other gods, sacrificing a snow-white bull
as an offering to Jupiter. Close by the place there happened to be a
little hill, on the top of which was a grove of myrtle, bristling with
thick-clustering, spear-like shoots. Wishing to have some of those
plants to decorate his altars, AEneas pulled one up from the ground,
whereupon he beheld drops of blood oozing from the torn roots. Though
horrified at the sight he plucked another bough, and again blood oozed
out as before. Then praying to the gods to save himself and his people
from whatever evil there might be in the omen, he proceeded to tear up
a third shoot, when from out the earth at his feet a voice uttered
these words:

"O, AEneas! why do you tear an unhappy wretch? Spare me, now that I am
in my grave; forbear to pollute your pious hands. It is from no tree-
trunk that the blood comes. Quit this barbarous land with all speed.
Know that I am Pol-y-do'rus. Here I was slain by many arrows, which
have taken root and grown into a tree."

Deep was the horror of AEneas while he listened to this dreadful
story, for he knew that Polydorus was one of the younger sons of
Priam. Early in the war, his father, fearing that the Trojans might be
defeated, had sent him for protection to the court of the king of
Thrace. At the same time he sent the greater part of his treasures,
including a large sum of money, to be taken care of by the king till