And spreading trains with pride uneasy bear.Here, as in Greece the custom was of old,The image of the goddess we beholdBorne on the heads of maidens, and behindThe priestesses in beauteous rank you find.An awful silence reigns : the goddess lastApproaches, and with her the pomp is past.The dress was Greek, and such Halesus wore,When in a fright he fled the Grecian shore;His father kill'd, an Argive ship he fraught,And to this coast the royal treasure brought.Much peril had he past, much labour known,O'er lands and seas, before he reach'd our own,And landing built, with happy hand, the town,Where first he did this festival revive,And its Greek rules to the Phaliscans give;The rites and sacrifices first he show'd,As practis'd now within this ancient wood.Ah, may these rites to all propitious be,No more to those that serv'd them than to me.