Lives of Alcyone

and usually it succeeded in devastating one or two isolated valleys,
massacring the male inhabitants and carrying off the women and
cattle.
The father of Alcyone was Neptune, and his mother Herakles.
His elder sister Mercury became while quite young a postulant at a
temple in the hills, and later was one of its priestesses; though this
in no way interfered with her marriage and family life. All the younger
children of the family adopted her, and she always gently protested,
helped and taught them. The religion was a form of sun-worship,
and all the great festivals were determined by the solistices and
equinoxes. On the whole the life of these mountaineers seems to
have been pure and healthy—a striking contrast to the utter
corruption of the great cities of the plains. Neptune lived on his huge
estate in truly patriarchal style; he practically owned a whole
valley—for the land was all valleys divided by steep ridges. He had
many dependants, but although they were respectful in a certain
independent sort of way, they were really almost more like friends
than servants.
We have here then a large group of people who lived happily
together, and on the whole lived practically to themselves. They
occasionally visited the men of neighbouring valleys and received
visits from them, but these were always rather formal affairs,
needing a good deal of preparation, because of the serious amount
of climbing involved in crossing the intervening ridges. The character
of the country was such that a detour of many miles was frequently
necessary in order to reach a house which would have been less
than a mile off if a tunnel could have which made through the hill. On
the whole these valleys were fairly secure against attacks from
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