THE BIRDS 259
And Teleas would be the first to answer,
" A mere poor creature, a weak restless animal,
A silly bird, that 's neither here nor there." ^ iso
Hoopoe. Yes, Teleas might say so. It would he like Mm. But tell me, what would you have us do ?
jPeisthetairus [^emphatically^. Concentrate!
Bring all your birds together. Build a city.
Hoopoe. The birds ! How could we build a city ? Where ?
Peisthetairus. Nonsense. You can't be serious. What a question ! iss
Look down.
Hoopoe. I do.
Peisthetairus. Look up now. ^Hoopoe. So I do.
Peisthetairus. Now turn your neck round.
Hoopoe. I should sprain it though.
Peisthetairus. Come, what d' ye see ?
Hoopoe. The clouds and sky ; that 's all.
Peisthetairus. Well, that we call the pole and the atmosphere ; And would it not serve you birds for a metropole ? i9o
Hoopoe. Pole ? Is it called a pole ?
Peisthetairus. Yes, that 's the name.
Philosophers of late call it the pole ; Because it wheels and rolls itself about, As it were, in a kind of a roly-poly way.^ Well, there then, you may build and fortify, 195
^ The lines between inverted commas may be understood either as the words of Teleas or as a description of him ; the ambiguitj' exists in the orig^inal and is evidently intentional. It is continued in the next line of the Hoopoe's answer.
2 The comic poets ridiculed the new prevailing passion for astro- nomical and physical science.
