AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREEK. 23 birds singing and saying : Who has ever seen a nice girl dragged away by a dead man ? Do you understand, my dear Constantine, what the little birds are saying: Who has ever seen a nice girl dragged away by a dead man? They are un- reasonable birds. Let them sing and say what they like. They continued their route, and other birds said again : What do we see ! What a sad sight ! the living travelling with the dead ! Did you understand, my Constantine, what the birds were saying about the living travelling with the dead? They are birds; they have nothing else to do but to sing and to gossip. I fear thee, O my brother, thou hast the odor of incense. Last night we went to the chapel of St. John and the priest put much incense in his censer. They went on further and other birds said : God Almigthy, this is a great miracle which thou doest! A corpse drags after him a young girl full of beauty and of grace. Arete heard it and her heart broke. Did you understand, my Con- stantine, what the little birds said? Tell me where is thy beautiful hair, thy heavy beard ? I have had a grave sickness which threatened to be fatal. It is on this account that I have lost my blond hair and my heavy beard. They found the house closed and the door latched. Cobwebs
