Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 1).djvu/240

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222
THE STEALING

ing the charms of his miſtreſs into Greek, to celebrate her Grecian form, to eſtimate the fineſt proportion of the female perſon at between eight and nine heads, or to denominate that a Grecian profile, where the root of the noſe is continued in a ſtraight line from the forehead. The eye and not the ruler, the feelings and not ſchool ſubtleties, were the ſole judges of beauty: their ſentence was deemed valid; and no man troubled himſelf about the opinion of Greek or Barbarian on the ſubject. But Friedbert opened both his ears, when ſhe informed him that ſhe was of princely blood, and no other than the youngeſt daughter of Zeno and the beautiful Zoe of Naxos.

‘Explain to me,’ ſhe continued, ‘friendly hermit, if thou knoweſt, the nature of this pool; tell me why my mother warned her daughters to avoid the northern bath? Had ſhe herſelf at any time the misfortune to loſe her veil here? She uſed to ſend us every‘year