urnfully, under her drooping lashes, into the
lake."

"Yet her buyer and master is said to treat her with the utmost
consideration, and fairly worships her."

"I can easily believe it. She is wonderfully beautiful,--solemnly
beautiful, I might say."

"But imagine this bear from Thule, this buffalo from the land of
Scythia, a Dionysus!"

"With those elephant bones!"

"With that fiery-red beard, two spans wide!"

"He probably wouldn't have that and the shaggy fleece on his head cut
off, if thereby he could become a god in reality."

"Yes, a Vandal noble! They think themselves greater than gods or
saints."

"Yet they were only cattle-thieves and land and sea robbers."

"Just look, he has buckled his broad German sword-belt over the vine
drapery about his loins."

"Perhaps for the sake of propriety," cried the other, laughing; "and
actually, Dionysus is wearing a Vandal short-sword."

"The Barbarian seems to be ashamed of being a naked god."

"Then he has not yet lost _all_ shame!" exclaimed a man who had also
understood the cautious whisper, striding rapidly on. "Come,
Theudigisel!"

"Did you understand that? It was the man with the spear. It did not
sound like the Vandal tongue."

"Yes, exactly like it. That's the way they speak in Spain! I heard it
in Hispalis."

"Hark, what a roaring on the ships!"

"That must be a hymenaeus, Victor! The bridegroom's brother composed it.
The Barbarians now write Latin and Greek verses. But they are of their
stamp."

"Yes, listen, Lauras," cried the other, laughing; "you are prejudiced,
as a rival! Since you failed in your leather business, you have lived
by writing, O friend! Weddings, baptisms, funerals, it was all the same
to you. You have even sung the praises of the Vandal victories over the
Moors, and--the Lord have mercy on us!--'the brave sword of King
Hilderic.' Yes, you wrote for the Barbarians even more willingly and
frequently than for us Romans."

"Of course. The Barbarians know less, require less, and pay better. For
the same reason, friend Victor, you too must wish, for the sake of your
wine-shop, that the Vandals may remain rulers of Carthage."

"How so?"

"Why, the Barbarians know as little about good wine as they do about
good verses."

"Only half hit. They probably have a tolerably fair judgment of it. But
they are always so thirsty that they will enjoy and pay for sour wine
too--like your sour verses. Woe betide us when we no longer hav