Page:The Anglo-Saxon version of the story of Apollonius of Tyre.djvu/82

 wit so keen and penetrating. The tree inclosing a host, and passing through various ways without a trace, is a ship."

"A person passes through circumferences and temples without injury. There is a great heat in the centre which no one removes. The house is not uncovered, but it suits a naked inhabitant. If you would allay pain, you must enter into fire."

"I would enter then into a hath, where fire is introduced by means of round tables. The covered house suits a naked inhabitant; and he who is naked in this situation will perspire."

When she had said these and similar things, the girl threw herself before Apollonius, and drawing aside his hands, embraced him. "Hear," said she, "the voice of your supplicant; regard a virgin's prayers. It is wicked in men of so much wisdom to destroy themselves. If you lament your lost wife, the mercy of God can restore her to you; if your deceased child, He can bestow another. You ought to live and be glad." Apollonius, irritated at the girl's pertinacity, arose, and pushed her from him with his foot. She fell and cut her cheek, from which the blood copiously flowed. Terrified at the wound she had received, she burst into tears, and exclaimed, "O thou eternal Architect of the heavens!