The Birds, page 50 by Aristophanes
<< Return to Title Details & Download51
he foundations. The water- rails chiselled them with their beaks. Ten thousand storks were busy making bricks; plovers and other water fowl carried water into the air.
f[1] So as not to be carried away by the wind when crossing the sea, cranes are popularly supposed to ballast themselves with stones, which they carry in their beaks.
PISTHETAERUS And who carried the mortar?
MESSENGER Herons, in hods.
PISTHETAERUS But how could they put the mortar into hods?
MESSENGER Oh! 'twas a truly clever invention; the geese used their feet like spades; they buried them in the pile of mortar and then emptied them into the hods.
PISTHETAERUS Ah! to what use cannot feet be put?[1]
f[1] Pisthetaerus modifies the Greek proverbial saying, "To what use cannot hands be put?"
MESSENGER You should have seen how eagerly the ducks carried bricks. To complete the tale, the swallows came flying to the work, their beaks full of mortar and their trowel on their back, just the way little children are carried.
PISTHETAERUS Who would want paid servants after this? But tell me, who did the woodwork?
MESSENGER Birds again, and clever carpenters too, the pelicans, for they squared up the gates with their beaks in such a fashion that one would have thought they were using axes; the noise was just like a dockyard. Now the whole wall is tight everywhere, securely bolted and well guarded; it is patrolled, bell in hand; the sentinels stand everywhere and beacons burn on the towers. But I must run off to clean myself; the rest is your business.
CHORUS Well! what do you say to it? Are you not astonished at the wall being completed so quickly?
PISTHETAERUS By the gods, yes, and with good reason. 'Tis really not to be believed. But here comes another messenger from the wall to bring us some further news! What a fighting look he has!
SECOND MESSENGER Oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! oh!
PISTHETAERUS What's the matter?
SECOND MESSENGER A