Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/302

272 272 ARISTOPHANES

Peisthetairus. Well, that 's well.

Messenger. A most amazing, astonishing work it is ! So, that Theagenes and Proxenides ^ 5

Might flourish and gasconade and prance away, Quite at their ease, both of them four-in-hand, Driving abreast upon the breadth of the waU, Each in his own new chariot.

Peisthetairus. You surprise me.

3Iessenger. And the height (for I made the mea- surement myself) 10 Is exactly a hundred fathoms.

Peisthetairus. Heaven and earth !

How could it be ? such a mass ! who could have built it?

Messenger. The Birds ; no creature else, no for- eigners, Egyptian bricklayers, workmen or masons. But, they themselves, alone, by their own efforts 15 (Even to my surprise, as an eye-witness), — The Birds, I say, completed everything : There came a body of thirty thousand cranes (I won't be positive, there might be more) With stones from Africa, in their craws and gizzards, Which the stone-curlews and stone-chatterers 21

Worked into shape and finished. The sand-martens And mud-larks, too, were busy in their department. Mixing the mortar, while the water birds. As fast as it was wanted, brought the water 25

To temper, and work it.

Peisthetairus in a fidget^. But, who served the masons ? AVho did you get to carry it ?

^ Pretenders to great wealth and afPecting extraordinary expense and display.