You can imagine how gloriously the god of Music sang! You can fancy how much chance Marsyas had of winning when Apollo's voice was carrying the hearts of the people away.... "There," said Apollo, when he had finished, "beat that if you can--and give me your skin!" "It is not fair," said Marsyas. "This is not a singing match: the question is, Which is the best instrument--the flute or the lyre?" "It _is_ fair," said Apollo. "If you can sing while you are playing the flute, then I have nothing to say. But you can't sing, you see, because you have to use your lips and your breath in blowing into those holes. Is not that instrument best which makes you sing best--Yes or No? And if I mustn't use my breath, you mustn't use yours." You must judge for yourself which was right. But the people decided for Apollo. And so Apollo, having won the wager, took Marsyas and skinned him, and hung his body on a tree. PART III.--TOO MUCH GOLD; OR, THE FIRST STORY OF MIDAS. There were other beings besides men upon the earth in those days. You ought to know something about them now, because Apollo, while he was banished from the sky, had a great deal to do with them. These beings were called Nymphs, Fauns, and Satyrs. The Nymphs were a kind of beautiful she-fairies. Dryads were nymphs who lived in forests. Hamadryads were nymphs who lived in trees. Every tree has a Hamadryad, who lives in it, who is born when it first grows, and who dies when it dies. So that a Hamadryad is killed whenever a tree is cut down. Naiads were nymphs belonging to brooks and rivers. Every stream has its Naiad. Ŏreads were nymphs who lived upon hills and mountains. They used to attend upon Apollo's sister Diana, who went hunting every moonlight night among the hills. The Fauns and Satyrs were he-creatures, like men, with the hind-legs of goats, short horns on their foreheads, and long pointed ears. But there was a difference between the Fauns and Satyrs. The Fauns were handsome, gentle, innocent, and rather foolish. The Satyrs were hideous, clumsy, hairy monsters, with flat faces, little eyes, and huge mouths, great gluttons, often drunk, and sometimes mischievous: most of them were dull and stupid, but many of them had plenty of sense and knowledge. The Fauns and Satyrs lived among the woods and hills, like the Dryads and Oreads. The king of all these Nymphs, Fauns, and Satyrs was a god named Pan, who was himself a very hideous satyr. He had nothing to do with the gods of Olympus, but lived on the earth, chiefly in a part of Greece called Arcadia. "Pan" is the Greek for "all"--you may remember the same word in the name of "_Pan_-dora." He was called "Pan" because he was the god of "all" nature--all the hills and mountains, all the woods and forests, all the fields, rivers, and streams.