_Peis._ Come now, go aloft, my boy, and tend the masons; Find them good stones; strip to it, like a man, And mix the mortar; carry up the hod-- And tumble down the ladder, for a change. Set guards over the wall; take care of fire; Go your rounds with the bell as city watchman-- And go to sleep on your post--as I know you will. _Euelp._ (_sulkily_). And you stay here and be hanged, if you like--there, now! _Peis._ (_winking at the King_). Go! there’s a good fellow, go! upon my word, They couldn’t possibly get on without you. The building is completed, by the joint exertions of the Birds, in a shorter time than even the enthusiastic speculations of Peisthetærus had calculated:-- “_Messenger._ 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-martins And mudlarks 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 carrier-pigeons.”[46]--(F.) The geese with their flat feet trod the mortar, and the pelicans with their saw-bills were the carpenters. The name fixed upon for this new metropolis is “Cloud-Cuckoo-Town”--the first recorded “castle in the air.” It must be the place, Euelpides thinks, where some of those great estates lie which he has heard certain friends of his in Athens boast of. It appears to be indeed a very unsubstantial kind of settlement; for Iris, the messenger of the Immortals, who has been despatched from heaven to inquire after the arrears of sacrifice, quite unaware of its existence and its purpose, dashes through the airy blockade immediately after its building. She is pursued, however, by a detachment of light cavalry--hawks, falcons, and eagles--and brought upon the stage as prisoner, in a state of great wrath at the indignity put upon her,--wrath which is by no means mollified by the sarcasms of Peisthetærus on the flaunting style and very pronounced colours of her costume as goddess of the Rainbow.