FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204  
205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   >>   >|  
uced to feel more pity and to order more tortures. The judge assented to this, and two bodies were carried into court shrouded in wrappings, and the order was given that Apuleius himself should remove the wrappings. The face of the young man grew white as he heard the words of the judge, for even a hardened criminal cares but little to touch the corpse of a man whom he has murdered. But he dared not disobey, and walked slowly to the place where the dead bodies lay. He shrank for a moment as he took the cloth in his hand, but his guards were behind him, and calling up all his courage he withdrew it. A shout of laughter pealed out behind him, and to his amazement he saw that his victims of the previous night had been three huge leather bottles and not men at all! As soon as Apuleius found out the trick that had been played on him he was no less amused than the rest, but in the midst of his mirth a sudden thought struck him. 'How was it you managed to make them alive?' asked he, 'for alive they were, and battering themselves against the door of the house.' 'Oh, that is simple enough when one has a sorceress for a mistress,' answered a damsel, who was standing by. 'She burned the hairs of some goats and wove spells over them, so that the animals to whom the hairs and skins had once belonged became endowed with life and tried to enter their former dwelling.' 'They may well say that Thessaly is the home of wonders,' cried the young man. 'But do you think that your mistress would let me see her at work? I would pay her well--and you also,' he added. 'It might be managed perhaps, without her knowledge,' answered Fotis, for such was the girl's name; 'but you must hold yourself in readiness after nightfall, for I cannot tell what evening she may choose to cast off her own shape.' Apuleius promised readily that he would not stir out after sunset, and the damsel went her way. That very evening, Hesperus had scarcely risen from his bed when Fotis knocked at the door of the house. [Illustration: APULEIUS CHANGES INTO AN ASS] 'Come hither, and quickly,' she said; and without stopping to question her Apuleius hastened by her side to the dwelling of the witch Pamphile. Entering softly, they crept along a dark passage, where they could peep through a crack in the wall and see Pamphile at work. She was in the act of rubbing her body with essences from a long row of bottles which stood in a cupboard in the wall, chant
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204  
205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Apuleius

 

mistress

 

managed

 

evening

 

answered

 

wrappings

 
bottles
 

dwelling

 
bodies
 
Pamphile

damsel

 
readiness
 
knowledge
 

wonders

 
Thessaly
 

nightfall

 
softly
 

Entering

 
passage
 

quickly


stopping

 
question
 

hastened

 

cupboard

 

essences

 

rubbing

 

readily

 

promised

 

sunset

 

choose


CHANGES

 

APULEIUS

 

Illustration

 
knocked
 
Hesperus
 

scarcely

 

shrank

 

slowly

 

walked

 

corpse


murdered

 

disobey

 
moment
 

withdrew

 
laughter
 
pealed
 

courage

 
guards
 
calling
 

carried