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Not only does he injure his own kinsfolk of the alphabet, but he has already attacked the human race also; for he does not allow them to talk straight with their tongues. Indeed , jurymen—for speaking of men has suddenly put mein mind of the tongue—he has banished me from this member too, as far as in him lay, and makes glotta out of glossa. O Tau, thou very plague o’ the tongue! But I shall attack him another time and advise men of his sins against them, in trying to fetter their speech, as it were, and to mangle it. A man on seeing something pretty (καλόν) wants to call it so, but Tau interferes and makes him say something else (ταλόν), One would expect a pun here, but ταλόν is not in the dictionaries. wanting to have precedence in everything. Again, another is talking about a palm-branch (κλῆμα), but Tau, the very criminal (τλήμων), turns the palm-branch into a crime (τλῆμα). And not only does he injure ordinary people, but even the Great King, in whose honour, they say, even land and sea give place and depart from their own natures—even he is plotted against by Tau, who instead of Cyrus makes him out something of a cheese (Κῦρος—τυρός).
