[_Enter Messenger, quite out of breath, and speaking in short
snatches_.]
_Messenger_--Where is he? Where? Where is he? Where? Where
is he?--The president Peisthetairus?
_Peisthetairus [coolly_]--Here am I.
_Mess. [in a gasp of breath_]--Your fortification's finished.
_Peis_.--Well! that's well.
_Mess_.--A most amazing, astonishing work it is!
So that Theagenes and Proxenides
Might flourish and gasconade and prance away
Quite at their ease, both of them four-in-hand,
Driving abreast upon the breadth of wall,
Each in his own new chariot.
_Peis_.--You surprise me.
_Mess_.--And the height (for I made the measurement myself)
Is exactly a hundred fathoms.
_Peis_.--Heaven and earth!
How could it be? such a mass! who could have built it?
_Mess_.--The Birds; no creature else, no foreigners,
Egyptian bricklayers, workmen or masons.
But they themselves, alone, by their own efforts,--
(Even to my surprise, as an eye-witness)
The Birds, I say, completed everything:
There came a body of thirty thousand cranes,
(I won't be positive, there might be more)
With stones from Africa in their craws and gizzards,
Which the stone-curlews and stone-chatterers
Worked into shape and finished. The sand-martens
And mud-larks, too, were busy in their department,
Mixing the mortar, while the water-birds,
As fast as it was wanted, brought the water
To temper and work it.
_Peis. [in a fidget_]--But who served the masons
Who did you get to carry it?
_Mess_.--To carry it?
Of course, the carrion crows and carrying pigeons.
_Peis. [in a fuss, which he endeavors to conceal_]--
Yes! yes! but after all, to load your hods,
How did you manage that?
_Mess_.--Oh, capitally,
I promise you. There were the geese, all barefoot
Trampling the mortar, and when all was ready
They handed it into the hods, so cleverly,
With their flat feet!
_Peis. [a bad joke, as a vent for irritation_]--
They footed it, you mean--
Come; it was handily done though, I confess.
_Mess_.--Indeed, I assure you, it was a sight to see them;
And trains of ducks there were, clambering the ladders
With their duck legs, like bricklayers' 'prentices,
All dapper and handy, with their little trowels.
_Peis_.--In fact, then, it's no use engaging foreigners;
Mere folly and waste, we've all within ourselves.
Ah, well now, come! But about the woodwork? Heh!
Who were the carpenters? Answer me that!
_Mess_.--The woodpeckers, of course: and there they were,
Laboring upon the gates, driving and banging,
With their hard hatchet-beaks, and such a din,
Such a clatter, as they made, hammering and hacking,
In a perpetual peal, pelting away
Like shipwrights, hard at work in the arsenal.
And now their work is finished, gates and all,
Staples and bolts, and bars and everything;
The sentries at their posts; patrols appointed;
The watchman in the barbican; the beacons
Ready prepared for lighting; all their signals
Arranged--but I'll step out, just for a moment,
To wash my hands. You'll settle all the rest.
