So Jurgen left him, and went into the forest. And there Jurgen encountered a smiling young fellow, who rode upon the back of a large ram. This young man had his left fore-finger laid to his lips, and his right hand held an astonishing object to be thus publicly displayed. "But, oh, dear me! now, really, sir--!" says Jurgen. "Bah!" says the ram. But the smiling young fellow said nothing at all as he passed Jurgen, because it is not the custom of Harpocrates to speak. "Which would be well enough," reflected Jurgen, "if only his custom did not make for stiffness and the embarrassment of others." Thereafter Jurgen came upon a considerable commotion in the bushes, where a satyr was at play with an oread. "Oh, but this forest is not respectable!" said Jurgen. "Have you no ethics and morals, you People of the Wood! Have you no sense of responsibility whatever, thus to be frolicking on a working-day?" "Why, no," responded the Satyr, "of course not. None of my people have such things: and so the natural vocation of all satyrs is that which you are now interrupting." "Perhaps you speak the truth," said Jurgen. "Still, you ought to be ashamed of the fact that you are not lying." "For a satyr to be ashamed of himself would be indeed an unheard-of thing! Now go away, you in the glittering shirt! for we are studying eudæmonism, and you are talking nonsense, and I am busy, and you annoy me," said the Satyr. "Well, but in Cocaigne," said Jurgen, "this eudæmonism was considered an indoor diversion." "And did you ever hear of a satyr going indoors?" "Why, save us from all hurt and harm! but what has that to do with it?" "Do not try to equivocate, you shining idiot! For now you see for yourself you are talking nonsense. And I repeat that such unheard-of nonsense irritates me," said the Satyr. The Oread said nothing at all. But she too looked annoyed, and Jurgen reflected that it was probably not the custom of oreads to be rescued from the eudæmonism of satyrs. So Jurgen left them; and yet deeper in the forest he found a bald-headed squat old man, with a big paunch and a flat red nose and very small bleared eyes. Now the old fellow was so helplessly drunk that he could not walk: instead, he sat upon the ground, and leaned against a tree-bole. "This is a very disgusting state for you to be in so early in the morning," observed Jurgen. "But Silenus is always drunk," the bald-headed man responded, with a dignified hiccough. "So here is another one of you! Well, and why are you always drunk, Silenus?" "Because Silenus is the wisest of the People of the Wood." "Ah, ah! but I apologize. For here at last is somebody with a plausible excuse for his daily employment. Now, then, Silenus, since you are so wise, come tell me, is it really the best fate for a man to be drunk always?"