Pagina 167 di 788

Above the mass of many-coloured ears and stalks hung like a

canopy a bright cloud of butterflies,50 whose four-parted wings

were light as a spider's web and transparent as glass; when they

hover in the air they are hardly visible, and, though they hum,

you fancy that they are motionless.

The girl waved in her uplifted hand a grey tassel, like a bunch

of ostrich plumes, and seemed to be protecting with it the heads

of the children from the golden rain of the butterflies-in her

other hand shone something horn-like and gilded, apparently an

instrument for feeding children, for she approached it to each

child in turn; it was formed like the golden horn of Amalthea.