Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/94

 

While from the peccant part the swains forbear
Their healing hands, and piously by pray'r 540
Seek succour of the Gods, neglected thrives
The lurking taint, and by concealment lives.
But on the bones when pangs deep-gliding prey,
And feverish fervours waste the strength away,
It oft avail'd to sooth the burning pain, 545
And lance between the hoof the bounding vein:
A remedy the Thracian Borderers prize,
And fierce Gelonian Rover, when he flies
To mountains, dreary desarts, and with blood
Of horses thicken'd swills the milky flood. 550
Far from her fleecy fellows should a sheep
To shady shelter oft be seen to creep,
Languidly listless the green herbage taste,
Nibbling the tops, or loitering lag the last,
Feeding sink on the plain, and at late eve 555
With solitary step the pasture leave;
Check with your knife the threat'nings of the pest,
Ere the dire venom seize th' unwary rest.
Less frequent far, black harbinger of storms,
The rushing whirlwind the vext main deforms, 560
Than Plagues unnumber'd on the cattle prey:
Nor single bodies do they snatch away,

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