14
She smote her face with both hands. "Wretched girl that I am," she cried, "what a dreadful thing I have done! In my hurry I blundered, because the boxes were so alike, and brought the wrong one, not the one that makes feathers grow. But cheer up, do, sweetheart! There is a very easy cure for this. You have only to eat some roses, and the beast will immediately fall from you and you will give me back my lover. Only stay this one night, dear, in the ass, and at daybreak I will run and fetch you some roses, and you will eat them and be cured." While she spoke thus she stroked my ears and the rest of my hide.
15
I was an ass in all other respects, but I had the heart and mind of a man -the same Loukios, but not his voice. Well, heaping silent reproaches on Palaistra for her mistake, and chewing my lip, I went off to where I knew my horse was stabled, together with another ass, a real one, belonging to Hipparchos. When they saw me coming in to join them they feared that I was going to share their feed, so they put back their ears and made ready to defend their bellies with their heels. I grasped the situation, and taking my stand at a distance from the manger, burst into a laugh, but my laugh was a bray. Then I said to myself: "Confound my untimely curiosity! What if a wolf should come in, too, or some other wild beast! The chances are that I shall be killed, though I have done nothing wrong." But though I reflected thus, I had no idea, poor devil! of the evil that awaited me.
