THE BIRDS. I4I

K. H. “Tam looking up.”

Plaus. “Now turn your neck round.”

K. H. “What good shall I get by ricking my
neck?”

Plaus. “Did you see anything?”

K. H. “1 saw the clouds and the sky.”

Plaus. “Well, that is the ‘pole’ of the birds.”

K. H. “Pole of the birds’! What do you mean?”

Plaus. “T mean that the birds will there get a
polity. Make a city of this, and men will be as
much in your power as if they were so many locusts ;
and as for the gods, you will starve them out just as
we starved the poor wretches in Melos.” 4

&. Hf. “ How is that to be managed ?”’

Plaus. “Don’t you see? The air is between the
gods and the earth; so, just as we, when we want
to send to Delphi, have to ask the Boeotians for a
passage, the: gods will have to come to you, and
unless they pay you a proper tribute, you won't let
the smell of the sacrifices go through your territory.”
’ K. H. “Good! good! Earth and clouds! springs
and nooses! I never heard a cleverer thing in my
life. I am quite ready to help you found the city

you talk of; that is, if the other birds agree.”

Plaus. “But who is to explain the matter to
them?”

1 The island of Melos, in the AZgean Sea, was blockaded in 416-
15 B.c. by the Athenians, and reduced to the greatest extremity of
starvation, “ Melian hunger” became a proverbial expression,