knowest thou the condition of my daughter's nuptials?" Apollonius said, "I know the condition, and I saw it at the gate." Then said the king with anger: "Hear now the riddle—Scelere vehor, materna carne vescor: That is in English; By crime I am carried away, on maternal flesh I feed." Again he said: "Quæro patrem meum, meæ matris virum, uxoris meæ filiam, nec invenio: That is in English; I seek my father, my mother's consort, my wife's daughter, and I find not."[1]
Apollonius then truly, having received the riddle, turned him a little from the king, and when he considered the sense, he gained it with wisdom; and with God's support, he guessed the truth. Then turned him to the king, and said: "Thou good king, thou proposest a riddle; hear now the solution of that which thou hast said.—That thou bearest crime, thou art not lying in that; look to thyself. And what thou saidst, 'on maternal flesh I feed,' in that thou art not lying; look to thy daughter." [5] When the king heard that Apollonius read the riddle so rightly, then he dreaded that it were too widely known; looked then with angry countenance at him, and said: "Thou young man, thou art far from right, thou errest, and what thou sayest is naught, but thou hast earned de-
- ↑ In the edition of the Gesta of 1494 the passage reads thus: "Scelere vehor, materna carne vescor, quero fratrem meum, matris mee virum, nec invenio."
