"Distributes in the bowels of the mount, "Whence they are dug with long fatigue and pain; "And hides them in the river and the fount, "In India; where ants work the golden vein. "Nor let the tale seem strange, which I recount, "Since two fair fishes feed upon the grain. "Now good Morgana the bitch-hound has sent "To guerdon thee with treasure and content:
"The wondrous Fay, for various riches vaunted, "Mistress of all that seas or earth enfold, "Is owner of a hind, in this enchanted; "That she is white, and armed with horns of gold; "And that by her no forest long is haunted, "Still restless and impatient of a hold. "Her many hunters vainly seek to catch; "But you may take her with this little brach.
"Who soon shall rouse her from her secret lair, "Yelping upon the trail with questing cry: "Thou shalt pursue, thro' holt or desert bare, "Though hound and hart more swift than arrow fly: "Six days shalt thou pursue the flying pair; "But on the seventh cease the chase to ply. "Since in a fount the milk-white hind shall soil,* "And thou be guerdon'd for thy tedious toil.
* The technical phrase for a stag taking the water: as he usually does when distressed. Hence our view-hollo of "Tayo!" for the stag, is taken from the old French cry of "_Taihors_," or "out of the swamp!" as our "Tally ho!" for the fox, is derived from "_Taillis hors!_" or "out of cover!" which last etymology we learn from Lady Juliana Berners. All our hunting phraseology indeed is Norman; even where we should be least inclined to trace it to such a source. Thus the cry of "Hiloicks! Hiloicks!" used by us in trying a cover, we find in her precepts to be "Illocques, Illocques!" or "There! There!" The Normans indeed formed both our hunting code and hunting vocabulary. See many well founded allusions to this in Ivanhoe.
"Six times a-day (such riches shalt thou measure) "She sheds her horns; which yield an hundred weight. "And thus shalt thou collect such mighty treasure "As may defy the wit of man to rate; "Thrice blest, if countless wealth can purchase pleasure; "To this perchance deserve a happier fate; "And with the hind obtain what is above "That precious prize, the beauteous fairy's love."
Orlando however treats the temptation with contempt, and unwillingly seating the damsel of the golden apples behind him, casts down the book and horn, and departs.