Chloe now arrived with Lamon and the servants. A fire was immediately kindled, upon which part of the goat's flesh was boiled and part of it roasted. Daphnis offered the first portions to the Nymphs, and poured out to them a libation of new must; he then piled some leaves into the form of couches, reclined at his ease upon one of them, and gave himself up to good cheer and mirth: but at the same time kept a watchful eye on his sheep for fear a wolf should effect what the enemy had been foiled in doing. After this the party sang the praises of the Nymphs in songs, which had been indited by the shepherds of by-gone days. They slept in the field that night, and in the morning remembered Pan. The leader of the goats was selected from the herd; a chaplet of pine-leaves was bound round his horns, and he was led to the statue, which stood beneath the pine; when after pouring over him a libation of wine,[12] carefully avoiding all ominous expressions, the victim was slain, suspended, and flayed. The flesh, part of which was roasted and part boiled, was spread out upon some dry leaves in the meadow. The skin with the horns was hung up on the tree hard by the statue of the god—a pastoral offering to a pastoral deity. A first portion also of the flesh was offered, and libations poured to him from the largest goblet. Chloe sang; while Daphnis piped.
Having discharged their religious rites, they were reclining on the grass and feasting, when Philetas the herdsman accidentally came by, bringing with him some garlands, and vine-branches, laden with their clusters, as offerings to Pan. Tityrus, his youngest son, a golden-haired, blue-eyed, fair and sportive boy followed him. At the sight of Philetas, Daphnis and Chloe sprang from their grassy couch, assisted in crowning Pan, and in suspending the clusters to the tree, and then made Philetas seat himself by them, and join in their carousal. Very soon, as old men do when their clay is moistened,[13] they began to talk of their youthful adventures, of the flocks which they had fed, of incursions of marauders, which they had escaped in the days when they were young. One prided himself on having slain a wolf: another boasted, that in piping he was second to Pan alone.—This was the boast of Philetas.
Daphnis and Chloe used urgent entreaties that he would teach them the art, and that he would play on the pipe at the festival of that deity, who delights in its melody. The old man complained that age had shortened his powers of breath, but complied with their request, and took up the pipe of Daphnis. It was a pipe too small to do justice to so great an art; being suited only for a boy. Accordingly he despatched Tityrus to bring his own pipe from the cottage, which was rather more than a mile off. The boy threw aside his cloak,[14] and darted off like a young fawn. Lamon, in the mean time, promised to amuse them with the legend of the Syrinx,[15] (or pipe) which he had heard from a Sicilian shepherd, who received a he-goat and a pipe as the price of his song.
"This pipe was not formerly what it is now, an instrument of music: it was once a maiden of beautiful form, and melodious voice. She fed her flocks, she sported with the Nymphs, and the sound of her voice was sweet as it is now. Pan beheld the maiden feeding her flocks, disporting herself, and singing. He approached her, and endeavoured to win her to his will, promising her as an enticement that all her she-goats should bear two kids at a birth. The maiden laughed at his suit, and replied that she would never think of accepting as a lover, one who was neither man nor goat, but a compound half of each.—Pan was preparing to offer violence: the maiden fled from him, and when weary with running, hid herself among the reeds of a lake and disappeared. Her pursuer in a rage cut the reeds, but finding no damsel there, and perceiving what had taken place, he in memory of her formed this instrument. Compacting with wax unequal reeds in order to shew how the course of their love had not run smooth.[16]—Thus she, who was once a beauteous maiden, is now a musical pipe: the instrument inheriting her name."
While Philetas was commending Lamon's legend, which, he said, was more pleasing than any song, Tityrus appeared with his father's pipe, a large instrument formed of the largest reeds, and ornamented with brass over the junctures of the wax. A person might have imagined it to be the very pipe whose reeds had been first united by Pan. Philetas rose up, placed himself upon a seat in an erect posture, and began to try whether the reeds were in good order: he found the air pass through them freely, and then with as much energy as if he had been in the prime of youth, he blew a note so vigorous and full, that it appeared like a band of pipers playing in concert. By degrees he moderated the vehemence of his tones, and turned them into a softer strain. He ran through all the variations of pastoral melody; he played the tune, which the oxen obey, that which attracts the goats, that in which the sheep delight. The notes for the sheep were sweet, those for the oxen deep, those for the goats were shrill. In short, his single pipe could express the tones of every pipe which is played upon.
Those present lay listening in silent delight; when Dryas rose up, and desired Philetas to strike up the Bacchanalian tune. Philetas obeyed, and Dryas began[17] the vintage-dance, in which he represented the plucking of the grapes, the carrying of the baskets,—the treading of the clusters, the filling of the casks, and the drinking of the new-made wine. All this Dryas imitated so closely and admirably in his pantomimic dance, that the spectator might fancy the wines, the wine-press, and the casks to be actually before him, and that Dryas was drinking in reality.
Each of the three old men had now severally distinguished himself. Dryas, in his delight gave Daphnis and Chloe a kiss, who immediately sprang from their seats, and began to dance a ballet representative of Lamon's fable. Daphnis assumed the character of Pan, and Chloe that of Syrinx. While he endeavoured to entice her to his embraces, she smiled in scorn at his attempts. He pursued her, and ran upon his tiptoes in imitation of the cloven feet of the god: while she making a semblance of exhaustion, at last hid herself in the wood, making it a substitute for reedy lake. Upon losing sight of her, Daphnis seizing the large pipe of Philetas, breathed into it a mournful strain as of one who loves; then a love-sick strain as of one who pleads; lastly and recalling strain, as of one who seeks her whom he has lost.
Philetas himself was astonished, and ran and embraced the youth and kissed him: and with a prayer, that Daphnis might transmit the pipe to as worthy a successor, bestowed it on him as a gift. The youth suspended his own pipe as an offering to Pan, kissed Chloe with as much ardour as if she had really been lost and found again, and led his flocks home by the sound of his new instrument. Chloe also (as night was coming on) conducted her sheep homeward to the music of her pipe. The goats kept close by the sheep, as Daphnis kept close by Chloe. In this manner did they enjoy each other's company, till night-fall, when they agreed to meet earlier at the pasture the next morning, an arrangement which they punctually fulfilled. As soon as the day dawned, they were in the fields. They paid their adorations to the Nymphs first, and then to Pan, afterwards retiring from their devotions to their seat under the shade of the oak, where they played their accustomed melodies. They interchanged kisses and embraces, and lay down side-by-side, but this was all; then rising, they bethought them of their meal, at which they partook of milk and wine.
Becoming gradually warmed and emboldened by all this they began to enter into an amorous revelry, and to swear perpetual affection and fidelity. Daphnis advanced to the sacred pine, and called Pan to witness, that he would never live apart from his Chloe—no—not for the space of a single day. Chloe entered the Grotto, and swore by the Nymphs, that she would live and die with Daphnis: and in the simplicity of her heart, upon coming out, she required that Daphnis should bind himself by a second oath; "for," (said the maiden) "my dear Daphnis, Pan himself, by whom you swore, is a lover, and yet unfaithful. He loved Pitys, he loved Syrinx, and yet he never ceases from pestering the Dryads with his addresses, or from causing annoyance to the Epimelian Nymphs, the guardians of our herds. He who breaks his own vows will hardly punish you, even if you should attach yourself to more damsels than there are reeds in this pipe. Come, dearest Daphnis, you must swear by this herd and by the she-goat, which nursed you, that, while Chloe is faithful to you, you will never desert her; on the other hand if Chloe should ever do despite to you, and to the Nymphs—fly from her—detest her—kill her, as you would kill a wolf."
Daphnis, delighted even at her mistrust, which shewed the warmth of her affection, placed himself in the midst of his herd, and taking hold of a she-goat with one hand, and a he-goat with the other, swore to be true to Chloe, while she was true to him; and that if she should ever prefer another before him, he would put an end not to her but to himself.