So they went forth and set Apollo's gift on the shore; then before them stood, in the form of a youth, farswaying Triton, and he lifted a clod from the earth and offered it as a stranger's gift, and thus spake: (ll.

1554-1561) "Take it, friends, for no stranger's gift of great worth have I here by me now to place in the hands of those who beseech me.

But if ye are searching for a passage through this sea, as often is the need of men passing through a strange land, I will declare it.

For my sire Poseidon has made me to be well versed in this sea.

And I rule the shore if haply in your distant land you have ever heard of Eurypylus, born in Libya, the home of wild beasts." (ll.