Note 404 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS

The youth, surmising where they had gone in their distress, followed a course which would take him to their asylum. While he was running he was greatly surprised to find a woman lying in his path. Stopping a moment, he asked, “What is the matter with you?” She replied, “I was ill when they decided to flee, so they built a cradle in which to bear me along with them. They bore me along in it. Finally I said, ‘Put me down here in this place, because I am ill in the manner of all women.’404 I will die here. Not having any women to bear me, I was left by them here. And you must beware for I am still ill in the manner of all women, and I am very, very ill thereby.”