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54

Would bury them and their houses with his earthquakes.

For I've had losses—losses, let me tell ye,

Like other people: vines cut down and ruined.

But, among friends (for only friends are here),

Why should we blame the Spartans for all this?

For people of ours, some people of our own,—

Some people from amongst us here, I mean;

But not The —pray remember that—

I never said The —but a pack

Of paltry people, mere pretended citizens,

Base counterfeits, went laying informations,

And making confiscation of the jerkins

Imported here from Megara; pigs, moreover,

Pumpkins, and pecks of salt, and ropes of onions,

Were voted to be merchandise from Megara,

Denounced, and seized, and sold upon the spot."—(F.)

He goes on to mention other aggressions on the part of his own countrymen—to wit, the carrying off from Megara a young woman, no great loss to any community in point of personal character, but still a Megarian—aggressions not of much importance in themselves, but such as he feels sure no high-spirited nation could be expected to put up with:—

why, as he says, the whole nation would have flown to arms at once to avenge the insult.

At this point he is interrupted. One party of the Acharnians are for making short work with such a blasphemer. But the other Semi-chorus vow that he says nothing but the truth, and dare them to lay hands