III. THE OMENS.

Then Prince Igor set his foot in the golden stirrup and rode into the open prairie. The sun barred his way with darkness and night, moaning with tempest, awoke the birds. The whistling of the beasts arose. And the Div arose and from the treetops it cried, enjoining unknown lands to listen: the land of the Volga, the land on the Azov Sea, the land at the river Sula, is the city of Surozh, the city of Kherson, and you, the idol of the city of Tmutorakan. The Kumans hastened by untrodden ways to the great river Don. Their carts squeak at midnight, one may say, as dispersed swans. lgor leads his warriors to the river Don. The birds in the forests of oak portend his misfortune. The wolves conjure the tempest in the ravines. The screeching eagles call the beasts to the feast of bones. Foxes bark at crimson shields. O! Russian land! You are already far beyond the hills.