nflicted!" Lycas broke in upon this plea for mercy, "Don't try to
confuse the issue," he said, "let every detail have its proper attention
and first of all, why did they strip all the hair off their heads,
if they came of their own free will? A man meditates deceit, not
satisfaction, when he changes his features! Then again, if they sought
reconciliation through a mediator, why did you do your best to conceal
them while employed in their behalf? It is easily seen that the
scoundrels fell into the toils by chance and that you are seeking some
device by which you could sidestep the effects of our resentment. And be
careful that you do not spoil your case by over-confidence when you
attempt to sow prejudice among us by calling them well-born and
respectable! What should the injured parties do when the guilty run into
their own punishment? And inasmuch as they were our friends, by that,
they deserve more drastic punishment still, for whoever commits an
assault upon a stranger, is termed a robber; but whoever assaults a
friend, is little better than a parricide!" "I am well aware," Eumolpus
replied, to rebut this damning harangue, "that nothing can look blacker
against these poor young men than their cutting off their hair at night.
On this evidence, they would seem to have come aboard by accident, not
voluntarily. Oh how I wish that the explanation could come to your ears
just as candidly as the thing itself happened! They wanted to relieve
their heads of that annoying and useless weight before they came aboard,
but the unexpected springing up of the wind prevented the carrying out of
their wishes, and they did not imagine that it mattered where they began
what they had decided to do, because they were unacquainted with either
the omens or the law of seafaring men." "But why should they shave
themselves like suppliants?" demanded Lycas, "unless, of course, they
expected to arouse more sympathy as bald-pates. What's the use of
seeking information through a third person, anyway? You scoundrel, what
have you to say for yourself? What salamander singed off your eyebrows?
You poisoner, what god did you vow your hair to? Answer!"

CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH.

I was stricken dumb, and trembled from fear of punishment, nor could I
find anything to say, out of countenance as I was and hideous, for to the
disgrace of a shaven poll was added an equal baldness in the matter of
eyebrows; the case against me