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284 284 ARISTOPHANES

To oppose ye, and oust ye, as the testator's brother. I'll tell ye what the law says, Solon's law :

" A foreign heir shall not succeed, Where there are children of the lawful breed : But, if no native heir there be, wo

The kinsman nearest in degree Shall enter on the property."

Hercules. Does nothing come to me, then ? No- thing at all. Of all my father leaves ?

Peisthetairus. Nothing at all,

I should conceive. But you perhaps can tell me. 145 Did he, your father, ever take ye with him, To get ye enrolled upon the register ? ^

Hercules. No, truly I. . . thought it strange,. ..

he. . . never did. Peisthetairus. Well, but don't think things strange. Don't stand there, stammering, iso

Puzzling and gaping. Trust yourself to me, 'T is I must make your fortune after all !

If you '11 reside and settle amongst us here, I '11 make you chief commander among the birds. Captain, and Autocrat and everything. 155

Here you shall domineer and rule the roast, With splendor and opulence and pigeon's milk. Hercules in a more audible voice, and in a for- mal decided tone ^J. I agreed with you before : I think your argument Unanswerable. I shall vote for the surrender.

1 Viz. of the citizens.

2 They had withdrawn apart, and their previous conversation was supposed not to have been audible to Neptune and the Triballian, whose by-play might have consisted in Neptune's formal attempts to soothe and gain the Triballian, who would only shrug his shoulders.