'Give me the tooth, that I may bite him.' But Perseus, when he saw
that they were foolish and proud, and did not love the children of
men, left off pitying them, and said to himself, 'Hungry men must
needs be hasty; if I stay making many words here, I shall be
starved.' Then he stepped close to them, and watched till they
passed the eye from hand to hand. And as they groped about between
themselves, he held out his own hand gently, till one of them put
the eye into it, fancying that it was the hand of her sister. Then
he sprang back, and laughed, and cried -

'Cruel and proud old women, I have your eye; and I will throw it
into the sea, unless you tell me the path to the Gorgon, and swear
to me that you tell me right.'

Then they wept, and chattered, and scolded; but in vain. They were
forced to tell the truth, though, when they told it, Perseus could
hardly make out the road.

'You must go,' they said, 'foolish boy, to the southward, into the
ugly glare of the sun, till you come to Atlas the Giant, who holds
the heaven and the earth apart. And you must ask his daughters,
the Hesperides, who are young and foolish like yourself. And now
give us back our eye, for we have forgotten all the rest.'

So Perseus gave them back their eye; but instead of using it, they
nodded and fell fast asleep, and were turned into blocks of ice,
till the tide came up and washed them all away. And now they float
up and down like icebergs for ever, weeping whenever they meet the
sunshine, and the fruitful summer and the warm south wind, which
fill young hearts with joy.