Cataplus

Charon Wait a bit! Fares first, please. Your fare, Micyllus; every one else has paid; one penny.

Micyllus You don’t expect to get a penny out of the poor cobbler? You’re joking, Charon; or else this is what they call a ‘castle in the air.’ I know not whether your penny is square or round.

Charon A fine paying trip this, I must say! However,—all ashore! I must fetch the horses, cows, dogs, and other livestock. Their turn comes now.

Clotho You can take charge of them for the rest of the way, Hermes. I am crossing again to see after the Chinamen, Indopatres and Heramithres. They have been fighting about boundaries, and have killed one another by this time.

Hermes Come, shades, let us get on;—follow me, I mean, in single file.

Micyllus Bless me, how dark it is! Where is handsome Megillus now? There would be no telling Simmiche from Phryne. All complexions are alike here, no question of beauty, greater or less. Why, the cloak I thought so shabby before passes muster here as well as royal purple; the darkness hides both alike. Cyniscus, whereabouts are you?

Cynic Use your ears; here I am. We might walk together. What do you say?

Micyllus Very good; give me your hand.—I suppose you have been admitted to the mysteries at Eleusis? That must have been something like this, I should think?

Cynic Pretty much. Look, here comes a torch-bearer; a grim, forbidding dame. A Fury, perhaps?

Micyllus She looks like it, certainly.