DISCIPLE. Oh! 'twas most ingenious! He melted some wax, seized the flea and dipped its two feet in the wax, which, when cooled, left them shod with true Persian buskins.[487] These he slipped off and with them measured the distance. STREPSIADES. Ah! great Zeus! what a brain! what subtlety! DISCIPLE. I wonder what then would you say, if you knew another of Socrates' contrivances? STREPSIADES. What is it? Pray tell me. DISCIPLE. Chaerephon of the deme of Sphettia asked him whether he thought a gnat buzzed through its proboscis or through its rear. STREPSIADES. And what did he say about the gnat? DISCIPLE. He said that the gut of the gnat was narrow, and that, in passing through this tiny passage, the air is driven with force towards the breech; then after this slender channel, it encountered the rump, which was distended like a trumpet, and there it resounded sonorously. STREPSIADES. So the rear of a gnat is a trumpet. Oh! what a splendid discovery! Thrice happy Socrates! 'Twould not be difficult to succeed in a law-suit, knowing so much about the gut of a gnat! DISCIPLE. Not long ago a lizard caused him the loss of a sublime thought. STREPSIADES. In what way, an it please you? DISCIPLE. One night, when he was studying the course of the moon and its revolutions and was gazing open-mouthed at the heavens, a lizard shitted upon him from the top of the roof. STREPSIADES. This lizard, that relieved itself over Socrates, tickles me. DISCIPLE. Yesternight we had nothing to eat. STREPSIADES. Well! What did he contrive, to secure you some supper? DISCIPLE. He spread over the table a light layer of cinders, bending an iron rod the while; then he took up a pair of compasses and at the same moment unhooked a piece of the victim which was hanging in the palaestra.[488] STREPSIADES. And we still dare to admire Thales![489] Open, open this home of knowledge to me quickly! Haste, haste to show me Socrates; I long to become his disciple. But do, do open the door. (_The disciple admits Strepsiades._) Ah! by Heracles! what country are those animals from? DISCIPLE. Why, what are you astonished at? What do you think they resemble? STREPSIADES. The captives of Pylos.[490] But why do they look so fixedly on the ground? DISCIPLE. They are seeking for what is below the ground. STREPSIADES. Ah! 'tis onions they are seeking. Do not give yourselves so much trouble; I know where there are some, fine and large ones. But what are those fellows doing, who are bent all double? DISCIPLE. They are sounding the abysses of Tartarus.[491] STREPSIADES. And what is their rump looking at in the heavens? DISCIPLE. It is studying astronomy on its own account. But come in; so that the master may not find us here. STREPSIADES. Not yet, not yet; let them not change their position. I want to tell them my own little matter. DISCIPLE. But they may not stay too long in the open air and away from school.