n the feet, who, placing a finger on the
mouth, appeared to be making sign to the spectators that they should be
silent; and with him were three women, representing Quiet, plump and
full in countenance, and dressed in rich robes of azure-blue, and each
with a tortoise upon the head, who appeared to be seeking to assist that
same Silence to guide those bears. The car itself, resting upon a
graceful hexagonal platform, was shaped in the form of a vast head of an
elephant, within which, also, there was represented as the house of
Sleep a fantastic cavern, wherein the great father Sleep was likewise
seen lying at his ease, fat and ruddy, and partly nude, with a garland
of poppies, and with his cheek resting upon one of his arms; having
about him Morpheus, Icelus, Phantasus, and his other sons, figured in
various extravagant and bizarre forms. At the summit of the same cavern
was seen the white, luminous, and beautiful Dawn, with her blonde
tresses all soft and moist with dew; and at the foot of the cavern, with
a badger that served her for a pillow, was dark Night, who, being held
to be the mother of true dreams, was thought likely to lend no little
faith to the words of the dreams described above. For the adornment of
the car, then, were seen some most lovely little stories, accommodated
to the invention and distributed with so much diligence, delicacy, and
grace, that it appeared impossible for anything more to be desired. In
the first of these was seen Bacchus, the father of Sleep, upon a car
wreathed in vine-leaves and drawn by two spotted tigers, with a verse to
make him known, which said:

Bacco, del Sonno sei tu vero padre.

Even as in another was seen Ceres, the mother of the same Sleep, crowned
with the customary ears of corn, and likewise with a verse placed there
for the same reason, which said:

Cerer del dolce Sonno e dolce madre.

And in a third was seen Pasithea, wife of the same Sleep, who, seeming
to fly over the earth, appeared to have infused most placid sleep in the
animals that were dispersed among the trees and upon the earth; likewise
with her motto which made her known, saying:

Sposa del Sonno questa e Pasitea.

On the other side was seen Mercury, president of Sleep, infusing slumber
in the many-eyed Argus; also with his motto, saying:

Creare il sonno puo Mercurio ancora.

And there was seen, to express the nobility and divinity of the same
Sleep, an ornate little temple of AEscula