“That is because they are old, and have forgotten what made them happy in their youth.  But have you no companions of your own age that you are fond of?”

“Not one.  Of course there are many other young girls beside me in Naukratis, but my grandmother says I am not to seek their acquaintance, and if they will not come to us I am not to go to them.”

“Poor child! if you were in Persia, I could soon find you a friend.  I have a sister called Atossa, who is young and good, like you.”

“Oh, what a pity that she did not come here with you!—­But now you must tell me your name.”

“My name is Bartja.”

“Bartja! that is a strange name!  Bartja-Bartja.  Do you know, I like it.  How was the son of Croesus called, who saved our Phanes so generously?”

“Gyges.  Darius, Zopyrus and he are my best friends.  We have sworn never to part, and to give up our lives for one another,” and that is why I came to-day, so early and quite in secret, to help my friend Gyges, in case he should need me.”

“Then you rode here for nothing.”

“No, by Mithras, that indeed I did not, for this ride brought me to you.  But now you must tell me your name.”

“I am called Sappho.”

“That is a pretty name, and Gyges sings me sometimes beautiful songs by a poetess called Sappho.  Are you related to her?”

“Of course.  She was the sister of my grandfather Charaxus, and is called the tenth muse or the Lesbian swan.  I suppose then, your friend Gyges speaks Greek better than you do?”

“Yes, he learnt Greek and Lydian together as a little child, and speaks them both equally well.  He can speak Persian too, perfectly; and what is more, he knows and practises all the Persian virtues.”

“Which are the highest virtues then according to you Persians?”

“Truth is the first of all; courage the second, and the third is obedience; these three, joined with veneration for the gods, have made us Persians great.”

“But I thought you worshipped no gods?”

“Foolish child! who could live without a god, without a higher ruler?  True, they do not dwell in houses and pictures like the gods of the Egyptians, for the whole creation is their dwelling.  The Divinity, who must be in every place, and must see and hear everything, cannot be confined within walls.”

“Where do you pray then and offer sacrifice, if you have no temples?”

“On the grandest of all altars, nature herself; our favorite altar is the summit of a mountain.  There we are nearest to our own god, Mithras, the mighty sun, and to Auramazda, the pure creative light; for there the light lingers latest and returns earliest.”