ng is drying, and that seems cleanest which is
driest; and the moisture that scours (as hellebore, with the humors that
it purges) ought to fly away quickly together with the stain. The sun
quickly draws out the fresh water, because it is so light but the salt
water being rough lodges in the pores, and therefore is not easily
dried.

And Theon replied: You say just nothing, sir; for Aristotle in the same
book affirms that those that wash in the sea, if they stand in sun, are
sooner dried than those that wash in the fresh streams. If it is true,
I am answered, he says so; but I hope that Homer asserting the contrary
will, by you especially, be more easily believed; for Ulysses (as he
writes) after his shipwreck meeting Nausicaa,

A frightful sight, and with the salt besmeared

said to her maidens,

Retire a while, till I have washed my skin,

And when he had leaped into the river,

He from his head did scour the foaming sea.
(See "Odyssey," vi. 137, 218, 226.)

The poet knew very well what happens in such a case; for when those that
come wet out of the sea stand in the sun, the subtilest and lightest
parts suddenly exhale, but the salt and rough particles stick upon
the body in a crust, till they are washed away by the fresh water of a
spring.

QUESTION X. WHY AT ATHENS THE CHORUS OF THE TRIBE AEANTIS WAS NEVER
DETERMINED TO BE THE LAST.

PHILOPAPPUS, MARCUS, MILO, GLAUCIAS, PLUTARCH, AND OTHERS.

When we were feasting at Serapion's, who gave an entertainment after the
tribe Leontis under his order and direction had won the prize (for we
were citizens and free of that tribe), a very pertinent discourse, and
proper to the then occasion, happened. It had been a very notable trial
of skill, the king Philopappus being very generous and magnificent in
his rewards, and defraying the expenses of all the tribes. He was at
the same feast with us and being a very good-humored man and eager for
instruction, he would now and then freely discourse of ancient customs,
and as freely hear.

Marcus the grammarian began thus: Neanthes the Cyzicenian, in his book
called the "Fabulous Narrations of the City," affirms that it was
a privilege of the tribe Aeantis that their chorus should never be
determined to be the last. It is true, he brings some stories for
confirmation of what he says; but if he falsifies, the matter is open,
and let us all inquire after the reason of the thing. But, says Milo,
su