Ekkehard could not help laughing at the boy. "Thou oughtest to become a miner," he said, turning to go.
But Audifax held him fast by his garment.
"No, you must first teach me something out of your book."
"What shall I teach you?"
"The most powerful charm."
An inclination to allow himself an innocent joke, now came into Ekkehard's serious mind. "Come along with me then, and thou shalt have the most powerful charm."
Joyfully Audifax went with him. Then Ekkehard laughingly told him the following words out of Virgil:
"Auri sacra fames, quid non mortalia cogis pectora?"
With stubborn patience, Audifax repeated the foreign words, over and over again, until he had fixed them in his memory.
"Please to write it down, that I may wear it on me," he now entreated.