Satyricon, vol 4, Escape by Sea | Page 4

water should spot the skin, suppose that the garment did not stick to the
ink, as it often does, where no gum is used, tell me! We can't make our
lips so hideously thick, can we? We can't kink our hair with a
curling-iron, can we? We can't harrow our foreheads with scars, can we?
We can't force our legs out into the form of a bow or walk with our
ankle-bones on the ground, can we? Can we trim our beards after the
foreign style? No! Artificial color dirties the body without changing it.
Listen to the plan which I have thought out in my desperation; let's tie
our garments around our heads and throw ourselves into the deep!"

CHAPTER THE
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD.
"Gods and men forbid that you should make so base an ending of your
lives," cried Eumolpus. "No! It will be better to do as I direct. As you
may gather, from his razor, my servant is a barber: let him shave your
heads and eyebrows, too, and quickly at that! I will follow after him,
and I will mark my inscription so cleverly upon your foreheads that you
will be mistaken for slaves who have been branded! The same letters
will serve both to quiet the suspicions of the carious and to conceal,
under semblance of punishment, your real features!" We did not delay
the execution of this scheme but, sneaking stealthily to the ship's side,
we submitted our heads and eyebrows to the barber, that he might

shave them clean. Eumolpus covered our foreheads completely, with
large letters and, with a liberal hand, spread the universally known
mark of the fugitive over the face of each of us. As luck would have it,
one of the passengers, who was terribly seasick, was hanging over the
ship's side easing his stomach. He saw the barber busy at his
unseasonable task by the light of the moon and, cursing the omen
which resembled the last offering of a crew before shipwreck, he threw
himself into his bunk. Pretending not to hear his puking curses, we
reverted to our melancholy train of thought and, settling ourselves
down in silence, we passed the remaining hours of the night in fitful
slumber. (On the following morning Eumolpus entered Lycas' cabin as
soon as he knew that Tryphaena was out of bed and, after some
conversation upon the happy voyage of which the fine weather gave
promise, Lycas turned to Tryphaena and remarked:)

CHAPTER THE
ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTH.
"Priapus appeared to me in a dream and seemed to say--Know that
Encolpius, whom you seek, has, by me, been led aboard your ship!"
Tryphaena trembled violently, "You would think we had slept
together," she cried, "for a bust of Neptune, which I saw in the gallery
at Baiae, said to me, in my dream--You will find Giton aboard Lycas'
ship!" "From which you can see that Epicurus was a man inspired,"
remarked Eumolpus; "he passed sentence upon mocking phantasms of
that kind in a very witty manner.
Dreams that delude the mind with flitting shades By neither powers of
air nor gods, are sent: Each makes his own! And when relaxed in sleep
The members lie, the mind, without restraint Can flit, and re-enact by
night, the deeds That occupied the day. The warrior fierce, Who cities
shakes and towns destroys by fire Maneuvering armies sees, and
javelins, And funerals of kings and bloody fields.
The cringing lawyer dreams of courts and trials, The miser hides his
hoard, new treasures finds: The hunter's horn and hounds the forests
wake, The shipwrecked sailor from his hulk is swept. Or, washed
aboard, just misses perishing. Adultresses will bribe, and harlots write
To lovers: dogs, in dreams their hare still course; And old wounds ache

most poignantly in dreams!"
"Still, what's to prevent our searching the ship?" said Lycas, after he
had expiated Tryphaena's dream, "so that we will not be guilty of
neglecting the revelations of Providence?" "And who were the rascals
who were being shaved last night by the light of the moon?" chimed in
Hesus, unexpectedly, for that was the name of the fellow who had
caught us at our furtive transformation in the night. "A rotten thing to
do, I swear! From what I hear, it's unlawful for any living man aboard
ship to shed hair or nails, unless the wind has kicked up a heavy sea."

CHAPTER THE
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH.
Lycas was greatly disturbed by this information, and flew into a rage.
"So someone aboard my ship cut off his hair, did he?" he bawled, "and
at dead of night, too! Bring the offenders aft on deck here, and step
lively, so that I can tell whom to punish, from their heads, that