at a sluggish pace; for, having no object in view, nor any
reason to go one way more than another, it would certainly have
been foolish to make haste. Whenever he met anybody, the old
question was at his tongue's end.

"Have you seen a beautiful maiden, dressed like a king's
daughter, and mounted on a snow-white bull, that gallops as
swiftly as the wind?"

But, remembering what the oracle had said, he only half uttered
the words, and then mumbled the rest indistinctly; and from his
confusion, people must have imagined that this handsome young
man had lost his wits.

I know not how far Cadmus had gone, nor could he himself have
told you, when at no great distance before him, he beheld a
brindled cow. She was lying down by the wayside, and quietly
chewing her cud; nor did she take any notice of the young man
until he had approached pretty nigh. Then, getting leisurely
upon her feet, and giving her head a gentle toss, she began to
move along at a moderate pace, often pausing just long enough
to crop a mouthful of grass. Cadmus loitered behind, whistling
idly to himself, and scarcely noticing the cow; until the
thought occurred to him, whether this could possibly be the
animal which, according to the oracle's response, was to serve
him for a guide. But he smiled at himself for fancying such a
thing. He could not seriously think that this was the cow,
because she went along so quietly, behaving just like any other
cow. Evidently she neither knew nor cared so much as a wisp of
hay about Cadmus, and was only thinking how to get her living