The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children, instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using his long shepherd's crook as a vaulting pole he leapt over a piece of rock in his way, and came running towards them. "Good-day to you!" cried all the children as soon as he was within hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on which they were standing. "May your day be good!" he answered, but as he said it, he laughed a little. The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short "foustanella,"[19] his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long "glitsa"[20] in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The "foustanella" was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age, half fallen off his head. A brightly striped "tagari"[21] was slung over his shoulder. "Perhaps you know," asked Iason, "where there is a big cave over on the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?" "A cave?" the man twisted his fingers in the tangled beard as he spoke, "Who told you of a cave?" "Lambro, the shepherd, told me." "Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps how one enters into this cave?" and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly into the boy's face. "No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose." The shepherd laughed. "You say well! By the entrance of course, ... by the entrance. Ask also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!" Andromache pushed forward. "And is Lambro here that we may ask him?" she said impatiently. "What foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!" The man turned his pale blue eyes on her. "I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well as the little cocks!" Iason turned to the others. "Come!" he said, speaking in French, "the man knows nothing, and he is trying to amuse himself with us." And they turned to continue their way up the hill. But the shepherd touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder, and unslinging his "tagari" offered it to her. "Take one!" he said; "let me befriend you with one."