Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/153



And he and the crowd and the throng all beheld the Bough of Denial rustle so strongly that its black-green seemed to whiten in the wind, and of the Bough of Affirmation not a leaf stirred nor any leaf of any other tree, unless perchance a faint whisper may have ruffled the surface of the Tree of Kronos and of the Tree of Hades, the dread oaks of Cursing and Doom. Therefore Mertander recognized that he was not to be the son-in-law of Polyteles and he stood aside.

Following him came Echesepolos of Barca, and Locrides of Tauchira, and they fared even as he.

Then in succession stood up and prayed: Hermesilaos of Assaria, Nephrodoros of Charax, Apostemon of Paliuros, Tamisophos of Megerthis, Mestianax of Tagulis, Brenctor of Zagazaena, Stlengides of Cyrathion and Phlyrax of Leptis; for these eight were those whose wealth had enabled them to have each a ship for himself. But they fared no better than their richer rivals.

Then stood up and prayed Gengron of Simnuana, Rhexenor of Auziqua, Semnotheos of Darnae, Praxides of Kerkar, Thax of Amastoros, Aigityps of Tabudion, Opor of Antipyrgos, Lerops of Zigrae, Okypodes of Tubaktis, Pranor of Tarichiae Marcomada and others in