THE BIRDS 257
That once I was a man.
JEuelpides. We did not laugh
At you, sir.
Hoojioe. What, then, were you laughing at ? 115
Euelpides. Only that beak of yours seemed rather odd.
Hoopoe. It was your poet Sophocles ^ that reduced me To this condition with his tragedies.
Euelpides. What are you, Tereus ? Are you a bird, or what ? 119
Hoopoe. A bird.
Euelpides. Then where are all your feathers ?
Hoopoe. Gone.
Euelpides. In consequence of an illness ?
Hoopoe. No, the birds
At this time of the year leave off their feathers. But you ! What are ye ? Tell me.
Euelpides. Mortal men.
Hoopoe. What countrymen ?
Euelpides. Of the country of the Triremes.^
Hoopoe. Jurymen, I suppose?
Euelpides. Quite the reverse,
We 're anti-jurymen.
Hoopoe. Does that breed still 126
Continue amongst you ?
Euelpides. Some few specimens ^
You '11 meet with, here and there, in country places.
^ In his tragedy of Tereus, Sophocles had represented him as transformed (probably only in the last scenes) with the head and beak of a bird.
^ Galleys with three banks of oars. The Athenians were at that time undisputed masters of the sea.
^ The love of litigation and the passion for sitting on juries seems
