He obeyed the call; and Dido was so wretched at his departure that she caused a great funeral pile to be built, laid herself on the top, and stabbed herself with AEneas' sword; the pile was burnt, and the Trojans saw the flame from their ships without knowing the cause.
[Illustration: CARTHAGE.] By-and-by AEneas landed at a place in Italy named Cumae.

There dwelt one of the Sybils.

These were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had endowed with deep wisdom; and when AEneas went to consult the Cumaean Sybil, she told him that he must visit the under-world of Pluto to learn his fate.
First, however, he had to go into a forest, and find there and gather a golden bough, which he was to bear in his hand to keep him safe.

Long he sought it, until two doves, his mother's birds, came flying before him to show him the tree where gold gleamed through the boughs, and he found the branch growing on the tree as mistletoe grows on the thorn.
Guarded with this, and guided by the Sybil, after a great sacrifice, AEneas passed into a gloomy cave, where he came to the river Styx, round which flitted all the shades who had never received funeral rites, and whom the ferryman, Charon, would not carry over.

The Sybil, however, made him take AEneas across, his boat groaning under the weight of a human body.