Ah! you big coward! were you so frightened that you let go your jay? Euelpides And did you not lose your crow, when you fell sprawling on the ground? Tell me that. Pisthetaerus Not at all. Euelpides Where is it, then? Pisthetaerus It flew away. Euelpides And you did not let it go? Oh! you brave fellow! Epops From within. Open the thicket, that I may go out! He comes out of the thicket. Euelpides By Heracles! what a creature! what plumage! What means this triple crest? Epops Who wants me? Euelpides Banteringly. The twelve great gods have used you ill, it seems. Epops Are you twitting me about my feathers? I have been a man, strangers. Euelpides It's not you we are jeering at. Epops At what, then? Euelpides Why, it's your beak that looks so ridiculous to us. Epops This is how Sophocles outrages me in his tragedies. Know, I once was Tereus. Euelpides You were Tereus, and what are you now? a bird or a peacock? Epops I am a bird. Euelpides Then where are your feathers? I don't see any. Epops They have fallen off. Euelpides Through illness? Epops No. All birds moult their feathers, you know, every winter, and others grow in their place. But tell me, who are you? Euelpides We? We are mortals. Epops From what country? Euelpides From the land of the beautiful galleys. Epops Are you dicasts? Euelpides No, if anything, we are anti-dicasts. Epops Is that kind of seed sown among you? Euelpides You have to look hard to find even a little in our fields. Epops What brings you here?