SPEAR-MAKER Let us be off, comrade.
TRYGAEUS No, I want to buy these spears.
SPEAR-MAKER What will you give?
TRYGAEUS If they could be split in two, I would take them at a drachma per hundred to use as vine-props.
SPEAR-MAKER The insolent dog! Let us go, friend.
TRYGAEUS Ah! here come the guests, children from the table to relieve themselves; I fancy they also want to hum over what they will be singing presently. Hi! child! what do you reckon to sing? Stand there and give me the opening line.
THE SON OF LAMACHUS "Glory to the young warriors..."
TRYGAEUS Oh! leave off about your young warriors, you little wretch; we are at peace and you are an idiot and a rascal.
SON OF LAMACHUS "The skirmish begins, the hollow bucklers clash against each other."(1)
f(1) These verses and those which both Trygaeus and the son
of Lamachus quote afterwards are borrowed from the 'Iliad.'