“Me heedless,” she replied, “whoe’er you are, Excuse, attentive to another care. I settled on the deep my steady eye, Fix’d on my float, and bent on my employ: And that you may not doubt what I impart, So may the ocean’s god assist my art, If on the beach since I my sport pursued, Or man or woman, but myself, I view’d.” Back o’er the sands, deluded, he withdrew, While she for her old form put off her new.

Her sire her shifting power to change perceived, And various chapmen by her sale deceived. A fowl with spangled plumes, a brinded steer, Sometimes a crested mare, or antler’d deer: Sold for a price, she parted, to maintain Her starving parent with dishonest gain.

At last all means, as all provisions, fail’d; For the disease by remedies prevail’d; His muscles with a furious bite he tore, Gorged his own tatter’d flesh, and gulf’d his gore. Wounds were his feast, his life to life a prey, Supporting nature by its own decay.