When the master heard this he said,
"Well, if he is willing neither to walk nor to carry a load, kill him and give his vitals to the dogs,
but save his flesh for the work-people, and if any
questions are asked as to the manner of his death
lay it to the wolf." The rascally boy, my driver,
was charmed, and was for killing me at once, but
in the dead of night a messenger came from the
village to the farm, saying that the bride, the one
who was stolen by the robbers, had been walking
with her bridegroom late in the evening on the
sea-shore, when suddenly the sea rose, caught
them, and carried them out of sight, and that this
was the end of their happiness and their agony.
This news, that the house was bereft of its young
master and mistress, determined the farm-people
to live in slavery no longer. They laid their
hands on everything in the house and fled. The
master of the horses took me, too, collected all
the goods he could, and packed them on me and


 


the mares. I was put out at having to carry the
load of a real ass, but I was glad to accept this
trial in place of the knife.
We travelled all night over a painful road, and
in three days more we finished our journey and
came to Beroia, a large and populous town in
Macedonia. There our drivers determined to
settle us and themselves, and we beasts were sold
at auction by a loud-voiced crier in the middle
of the market-place. The by-standers wished to
open our mouths and look at them, and they saw
the age of each by his teeth. They bought the
others one by one, but I was left last of all, and
the auctioneer bade them take me home again.
"See," he said, "this fellow only has found no
master."

But fickle Nemesis who whirls our fortunes
constantly about brought a master even to me,
such as I should not have prayed for. He was
an old rascal of the sort who carry the Syrian
goddess around among the villages and farms,
and make her beg. This man bought me at the
handsome price of six dollars!