riests in
his honour!"

_Apollonius_ draws close to Antony, and, bending towards his ear, says:

"The truth is, I know all the gods, all the rites, all the prayers, all
the oracles. I have penetrated into the cavern of Trophonius, the son of
Apollo. I have moulded for the Syracusans the cakes which they use on
the mountains. I have undergone the eighty tests of Mithra. I have
pressed against my heart the serpent of Sabacius. I have received the
scarf of the Cabiri. I have bathed Cybele in the waves of the Campanian
Gulf; and I have passed three moons in the caverns of Samothrace!"

_Damis_, laughing stupidly--"Ah! ah! ah! at the mysteries of the Bona
Dea!"

_Apollonius_--"And now we are renewing our pilgrimage. We are going to
the North, the side of the swans and the snows. On the white plain the
blind hippopodes break with the ends of their feet the ultramarine
plant."

_Damis_--"Come! it is morning! The cock has crowed; the horse has
neighed; the ship is ready."

_Antony_--"The cock has not crowed. I hear the cricket in the sands, and
I see the moon, which remains in its place."

_Apollonius_--"We are going to the South, behind the mountains and the
huge waves, to seek in the perfumes for the cause of love. You shall
inhale the odour of myrrhodion, which makes the weak die. You shall
bathe your body in the lake of pink oil of the Island of Juno. You
shall see sleeping under the primroses the lizard who awakens all the
centuries when at his maturity the carbuncle falls from his forehead.
The stars glitter like eyes, the cascades sing like lyres, an
intoxicating fragrance arises from the opening flowers. Your spirit
shall expand in this atmosphere, and it will show itself in your heart
as well as in your face."

_Damis_--"Master, it is time! The wind is about to rise; the swallows
are awakening; the myrtle-leaf is shed."

_Apollonius_--"Yes, let us go!"

_Antony_--"No--not I! I remain!"

_Apollonius_--"Do you wish me to show you the plant Balis, which
resuscitates the dead?"

_Damis_--"Ask him rather for the bloodstone, which attracts silver, iron
and bronze!"

_Antony_--"Oh! how sick I feel! how sick I feel!"

_Damis_--"You shall understand the voices of all creatures, the
roarings, the cooings!"

_Apollonius_--"I will make you mount the unicorns, the dragons, and the
dolphins!"

_Antony_, weeps--"Oh! oh! oh!"

_Apollonius_--"You shall know the demons who dwell in the caverns, those
who speak i