First Dead Man Alas for my goods! Second Dead Man Alas for my fields! Third Dead Man Woe is me, what a house I have left! Fourth Dead Man How many thousands my heir will get to make ducks and drakes of! Fifth Dead Man Alas for my young children! Sixth Dead Man Who will gather grapes from the vines I planted for myself last year? Hermes Mikyllos, do you make no lament? It is impious for any one to cross without a tear. Mikyllos Nonsense. I have nothing to lament for on a prosperous voyage. Hermes Still, just join a little in the groaning for custom's sake. Mikyllos I will make my moan, then, since you think best, Hermes. Alas for my soles! Alas for my old lasts! Woe is me for my rotten sandals! Poor wretch, I shall never again go without food from daybreak to nightfall! Never again shall I stalk about in winter barefoot and half naked, my teeth chattering with the cold! Who, pray tell, will have my knife and my awl? Hermes You have mourned enough; we have almost finished our voyage. Charon Come, pay me the ferry-charge first! -Give me yours, too. Now they have all paid. -Pay me your obol, too, Mikyllos. Mikyllos You are joking, Charon, or else your accounts are writ in water, as they say, if you expect any obol from Mikyllos. I absolutely do not know whether an obol is four-sided or round. Charon This is a fine, profitable voyage to-day! However, take yourselves ashore. I am going after the horses and cows and dogs and other animals, for they, too, must needs cross now. Klotho Take them and conduct them, Hermes. I myself must sail to the other shore, to bring over Indopatris and Eraminthe, the Seres. They are already dead just now from fighting with each other about the boundaries of their territories. Hermes Let us proceed, friends, or, rather, all follow me in order. Mikyllos Goodness, how dark it is. Where now is the handsome Megillos? Or how can any one tell here whether Simmiche is more beautiful than Phryne? All things are equal and of the same complexion, and there are no such things as degrees of beauty. Even my threadbare cloak, which always used to seem hideous to me, is now just as good as the king's purple, for they are both invisible and covered by the same darkness. Kyniskos, where may you happen to be? Kyniskos Here I am. Let us stroll on together, if agreeable to you. Mikyllos By all means. Give me your arm. Tell me, is not this much the same sort of thing as the Eleusinian mysteries-for of course you have been initiated? Kyniskos You are right. See, now, this person advancing with a torch, looking fiercely and threateningly about her. I wonder whether it is an Erinnys? Mikyllos Probably, from the look of her dress.