6–7
Hermes
Dens? Those are cities!
Charon
I tell you what it is, Hermes; all this is no use. Here have we been shifting about Parnassus (Castalia and all complete), and Oeta, and these others, and we might have spared ouiselves the trouble!
Charon
Why, I can make nothing out up here. These cities and mountains look for all the world like a map. It is men that I am after; I want to see what they do, and hear what they say. That is what I was laughing about just now, when first you met me, and asked me what the joke was. I had heard something that tickled me hugely.
5
Hermes
And what might that be?
Charon
One of them had been asked by a friend to dinner, I think it was, the next day. ‘Depend on it,’ says he, ‘I'll be with you.’ And before the words were out of his mouth, down came a tile—started somehow from the roof—and he was a dead man! Ha, ha, thought I, that promise will never be kept.— So I think I shall go down again; I want to see and hear.
Hermes
Sit where you are. I will soon put that right; you shall see with the best; Homer has a charm for this too. Now, the moment I say the lines, there must be no more dull eyes; all must be clear as daylight. Don’t forget!
Hermes
See, from before thine eyes I lift the veil; So shalt thou clearly know both God and man. Well? Are the eyes any better?
Charon
A marvellous improvement! Lynceus-is blind to me. Now, the next thing I want is information. I have some questions to ask. Will you have them couched in the Homeric style, to convince you that I am not wholly unversed in his poems?
