Page:The Eleven Comedies (1912) Vol 1.djvu/277

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And so I am, by Zeus, I am!

Then why this helmet, pray?

For fear my pains should seize me in the Acropolis; I mean to lay my eggs in this helmet, as the doves do.

Excuses and pretences every word! the thing’s as clear as daylight. Anyway, you must stay here now till the fifth day, your day of purification.

I cannot sleep any more in the Acropolis, now I have seen the snake that guards the Temple.

Ah! and those confounded owls with their dismal hooting! I cannot get a wink of rest, and I’m just dying of fatigue.

You wicked women, have done with your falsehoods! You want your husbands, that’s plain enough. But don’t you think they want you just as badly? They are spending dreadful nights, oh! I know that well enough. But hold out, my dears, hold out! A little more patience, and the victory will be ours. An Oracle promises us success, if only we remain united. Shall I repeat the words?

Yes, tell us what the Oracle declares.

Silence then! Now—“Whenas the swallows, fleeing before the hoopoes, shall have all flocked together in one place, and shall refrain them from all amorous commerce,