Indegatus. “My son, must I admonish you a second time to be more reverend in speech when addressing a being bearing tidings, you know not from whom, or from whence?”
Gnipho. “You have advised us, father, to follow the example of our superiors, and this stranger phantom appears to be in no serious mood, for he laughs at your fears. But I will admit him to an audience, that he may declare the object of his visit!”
Indegatus. “Presume not to take advantage of his levity, for as you are well instructed, and know that when I advised, it was for your dealings with mortality?”
Gnipho. “Now he laughs outright, and my ear resounds with his mirth, as if filled with the infantile chirping of a joyous cricket. But now he speaks!”
Indegatus. “Listen?”
Gnipho. “Yes father. He asks if I can hear him distinctly.”
Indegatus. “Then in virtue of my office as prætor and augur, I will address him. Speak Nuntius: What tidings bear you from the spirit world? and from whose realm do you come in this disguise?”
Gnipho. “Again I hear his small voice in the chuckling check of merriment, as if he would fain speak in reply.”
Indegatus. “Then listen, my child, to the message he bears? It surely cannot presage ill if he is in merry mood!”
Gnipho. (Listening.) “He says he is not a spirit, but of mortal birth, like ourselves. But I will repeat his own words. ‘Say to your father, that I have been long acquainted with his goodness, and desire to relieve his anxiety for the self-imposed misery of his people. Also to render him other efficient aid in a small way!’”