But there's another joke he must be part of, just
as old and just as silly.
MOMUS. No, no! Turn to the right, and to the right. Still to the right. And
again to the right. That's right.
[Round and round went Hipponax until he found his path again. S
... and unkind? Yes, Nature and children with their parables of humour
sometimes seem to be so ... but only if we lose all touch with them.
Then the voice of Mercury is like music...
MERCURY. Come; earthwards both of you. I smell the spring and fields and
flowers. Is that Pan piping? No, a bird's song. Such little things as that
does Psyche love and seek. On we go.
[Mercury is gone. You should wonder how, though it looks mere walking.
Charon is walking after, so tame an exit that it will never do.
"Give us a back, old 'un," says Momus, and leap-frogs him. Poor old back,
it gives way. For Momus is a weight indeed. But if you can't laugh at your
own hurts, what can you laugh at? So Charon totters after, chuckling as he
rubs his bones.
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