DAMIS. "Thyana, his natal city, has established in his honor a temple and a priesthood!"
APOLLONIUS (_draws near Anthony, and shouts in his ear_:--)
"It is because I know all gods, all rites, all prayers, all oracles! I have penetrated into the cave of Trophonius, son of Apollo! I have kneaded for Syracusan women the cakes which they carry to the mountains. I have endured the eighty tests of Mithra! I have pressed to my heart the serpent of Sabasius! I have received the scarf of Kabiri! I have laved Cybele in the waters of the Campanian gulfs! and I have passed three moons in the caverns of Samothracia!"
"Ah! ah! ah! at the mysteries of the good Goddess!"
APOLLONIUS. "And now we recommence our pilgrimage.
"We go to the North to the land of Swans and of snows. Upon the vast white plains, the blind hippopodes break with the tips of their feet the ultramarine plant."
DAMIS. "Hasten! it is already dawn. The cock has crowed, the horse has neighed, the sail is hoisted!"
ANTHONY. "The cock has not crowed! I hear the locusts in the sands, and I see the moon still in her place."
APOLLONIUS. "We go to the South, beyond the mountains and the mighty waters, to seek in perfumes the secret source of love. Thou shalt inhale the odor of myrrhodion which makes the weak die. Thou shalt bathe thy body in the lake of Rose-oil which is in the Island Junonia. Thou shalt see slumbering upon primroses that Lizard which awakes every hundred years when the carbuncle upon its forehead, arriving at maturity, falls to the ground. The stars palpitate like eyes; the cascades sing like the melody of lyres; strange intoxication is exhaled by blossoming flowers; thy mind shall grow vaster in that air; and thy heart shall change even as thy face."
DAMIS. "Master! it is time! The wind has risen, the swallows awaken, the myrtle leaves are blown away."
APOLLONIUS. "Shall I tell thee where grows the plant Balis, that resurrects the dead?"
DAMIS "Nay; ask him rather for the audrodamas which attracts silver, iron and brass!"
ANTHONY. "Oh! how I suffer! how I suffer!"
DAMIS. "Thou shalt comprehend the voices of all living creatures, the roarings, the cooings!"
APOLLONIUS. "I shall enable thee to ride upon unicorns and upon dragons, upon hippocentaurs and dolphins!"