82 ARISTOPHANES.

ployment, and if he ever did doze off for a moment
his soul seemed to flutter about the clock! by which
the advocates’ speeches were timed. When he got
up in the morning, he always put his thumb and
two fingers together exactly as if he were holding a
voting pebble in them; and if-a lover had written
onthe walls, a oh
Pretty, pretty Goldilocks,

he would write underneath,

: Pretty, pretty Ballotbox.

When a cock happened to crow in the evening he
would cry ::“ That cock has been bribed to be late in
waking me by some officials who don’t like the idea
of giving in their accounts.” Supper was hardly
over before he clamoured for his shoes; and before
dawn he was off to the court, and went to sleep
leaning against the pillar on which the notices were .
posted up. And when he was sitting, he was always
for severity. It was always the longest sentence
that pleased him most.2 So afraid was he that

1 A water-clock, or clepsydra; the water occupied a certain time in
running out, and a larger or smaller clepsydra, or, it may be, a clep-
sydra filled so many times, was granted to the speakers according to
the nature and importance of the case.

2 Commonly, in an Athenian court, when a verdict had been given,
and (supposing that the prisoner had been found guilty) sentence had
to be passed, the prosecutor would first name the penalty which he
thought fit to meet the case, or which seemed to him such as the jury
would probably accept;~ and then ‘the prisoner, on the. other hand,
named some other punishment, as much milder as he could venture