its place.  Therefore search for it diligently, and when you have discovered it grasp it with your hand.  If the Fates are propitious to your enterprise, you will be able to pluck it easily; if otherwise, your whole strength could not tear it from the tree, nor could you ever sever it with your sword.  In the mean time the body of one of your friends lies lifeless, and demands the funeral rites.  First bury him with proper ceremonies, and then return to me with black cattle for the sacrifices; and then you shall be able to visit the realms of Hades, to which most living men are denied an entrance.”

With sorrowful thoughts AEneas, closely followed by Achates, now withdrew from the shrine, and took the way to the shore.  Both were greatly perplexed to know what was the corpse needing burial of which the Sibyl had spoken.  But while they were wondering they came to the beach, and there, before them, they saw lying the body of Misenus, who had come to a lamentable end.  Misenus was the most skilled among all the Trojans in the art of blowing the trumpet.  He had been, besides, a famous warrior, and during the siege of Troy was accustomed to be the companion of Hector in the field, and to fight by his side.  When Hector fell, he attached himself to AEneas, scorning to follow any less illustrious chief, and so had formed one of the band which the hero was conducting to Latium.  But he was inordinately vain of his skill with the trumpet, and believed himself superior even to the Tritons, the sea-deities whose especial province it was to lull the seas at the command of Neptune by blowing upon instruments made of shells.  These Tritons Misenus had challenged to a trial of skill, and by way of defiance had blown so loud a note that the deities were afraid to respond to his challenge; but being full of jealousy, they had now contrived to lure him into the sea and drown him.  The discovery of his lifeless body filled all his comrades with sadness.  They gathered about him with loud lamentations, and then prepared to erect his funeral pyre, hastening with axes into the thick surrounding woods, and cutting down huge oaks and pines and ash-trees.

AEneas himself led the way in the performance of this task, and while he was engaged in it he could not help exclaiming, as his glance surveyed the wide forest, “Would that I could now perceive the golden bough which I must find before entering Hades; for in this ample forest, how can I begin to search for it?” Scarcely had he spoken when two pigeons suddenly swooped down from the upper air and alighted at his feet.  He guessed at once that these doves, his mother’s favorite birds, had been sent for his guidance, and he entreated them to conduct him to the place where the precious bough was growing.  The doves, feeding and flying by turns, advanced through the wood at such a speed that AEneas could easily keep them in sight, and presently, having reached the very edge of Lake Avernus, both rose at once into the air, and settled on a great tree of very dense foliage.  The hero hastened to the spot, and there indeed, on one of the lower limbs of the tree, gleamed the bough, the rich yellow lustre of its leaves and twigs contrasting vividly with the deep green of the surrounding foliage.  AEneas with delight grasped it, and plucked it from its place, and, bearing it carefully in his hand, hastened to rejoin his companions.