[_The troopers mount their horses, and gallop away in every direction._ SCENE FOURTH. _Daybreak. The grove of acacias and palms._ _PEER GYNT in his tree with a broken branch in his hand, trying to beat off a swarm of monkeys._ PEER. Confound it! A most disagreeable night. [_Laying about him._ Are you there again? This is most accursëd! Now they’re throwing fruit. No, it’s something else. A loathsome beast is your Barbary ape! The Scripture says: Thou shalt watch and fight. But I’m blest if I can; I am heavy and tired, [_Is again attacked; impatiently_: I must put a stopper upon this nuisance! I must see and get hold of one of these scamps, Get him hung and skinned, and then dress myself up, As best I may, in his shaggy hide, That the others may take me for one of themselves.— What are we mortals? Motes, no more; And it’s wisest to follow the fashion a bit.— Again a rabble! They throng and swarm. Off with you! Shoo! They go on as though crazy. If only I had a false tail to put on now,— Only something to make me a bit like a beast.— What now? There’s a pattering over my head——! [_Looks up._ It’s the grandfather ape,—with his fists full of filth——! [_Huddles together apprehensively, and keeps still for a while. The ape makes a motion; PEER GYNT begins coaxing and wheedling him, as he might a dog._ Ay,—are you there, my good old Bus! He’s a good beast, he is! He will listen to reason! He wouldn’t throw;—I should think not, indeed! It is me! Pip-pip! We are first-rate friends! Ai-ai! Don’t you hear, I can talk your language? Bus and I, we are kinsfolk, you see;— Bus shall have sugar to-morrow——! The beast! The whole cargo on top of me! Ugh, how disgusting!— Or perhaps it was food! ’Twas in taste—indefinable; And taste’s for the most part a matter of habit. What thinker is it who somewhere says: You must spit and trust to the force of habit?— Now here come the small-fry! [_Hits and slashes around him._ It’s really too bad That man, who by rights is the lord of creation, Should find himself forced to——! O murder! murder! The old one was bad, but the youngsters are worse! SCENE FIFTH. _Early morning. A stony region, with a view out over the desert. On one side a cleft in the hill, and a cave._ _A THIEF and a RECEIVER hidden in the cleft, with the Emperor’s horse and robes. The horse, richly caparisoned, is tied to a stone. Horsemen are seen afar off._ THE THIEF.