FIRST INTERLUDE.

_The scenery changes to horrible rocks, and shows a dreadful cavern
in the distance. It is in this desert that_ PSYCHE, _in obedience
to the oracle, is to be exposed. A band of afflicted people come to
bewail her death. Some give utterance to their pity by touching
complaints and mournful lays, while the rest express their grief by a
dance full of every mark of go most violent despair_.

WAILINGS _sung by a woman and two men_.

WOMAN.
Ah! weep with me, ye forests;
Ye mighty rocks of hardest adamant,
Ye Springs, ye beasts,
Lament the fate of one so fair.

1ST MAN.
Alas! dire grief

2ND MAN.
Without relief!

1ST MAN.
Cruel death!

2ND MAN.
Fell decree

ALL THREE (_together_).