KING ARGIMENES No.  I have no other hope, for my god was cast down in the temple and broken into three pieces on the day that they surprised us and took me sleeping.  But will they throw him to us?  Will so honourable a brute as the King’s dog be thrown to us?

ZARB When he is dead his honours are taken away.  Even the King when he is dead is given to the worms.  Then why should not his dog be thrown to us?

KING ARGIMENES We are not worms!

ZARB You do not understand, Argimenes.  The worms are little and free, while we are big and enslaved.  I did not say we were worms, but we are like worms, and if they have the King when he is dead, why then—­

KING ARGIMENES Tell me more of the King’s dog.  Are there big bones on him?

ZARB Ay, he is a big dog—­a high, big, black one.

KING ARGIMENES You know him then?

ZARB O yes, I know him.  I know him well.  I was beaten once because of him, twenty-five strokes from the treble whips, two men beating me.

KING ARGIMENES How did they beat you because of the King’s dog?

ZARB They beat me because I spoke to him without making obeisance.  He was coming dancing alone over the slave-fields and I spoke to him.  He was a friendly great dog, and I spoke to him and patted his head, and did not make obeisance.

KING ARGIMENES And they saw you do it?

ZARB Yes, the slave-guard saw me.  They came and seized me at once and bound my arms.  The great dog wanted me to speak to him again, but I was hurried away.

KING ARGIMENES You should have made obeisance.

ZARB The great dog seemed so friendly that I forgot he was the King’s great dog.

KING ARGIMENES But tell me more.  Was he hurt, or is it a sickness?

ZARB They say that it is a sickness.

KING ARGIMENES Ah.  Then he will grow thin if he does not die soon.  If it had been a hurt!—­but we should not complain.  I complain more often than you do because I had not learned to submit while I was yet young.

ZARB If your beautiful memories do not please you, you should hope more.  I wish I had your memories.  I should not trouble to hope then.  It is very hard to hope.

KING ARGIMENES There will be nothing more to hope for when we have eaten the King’s dog.

ZARB Why you might find gold in the earth while you were digging.  Then you might bribe the commander of the guard to lend you his sword; we would all follow you if you had a sword.  Then we might take the King and bind him and lay him on the ground and fasten his tongue outside his mouth with thorns and put honey on it and sprinkle honey near.  Then the grey ants would come from one of their big mounds.  My father found gold once when he was digging.

KING ARGIMENES (pointedly) Did your father free himself?

ZARB No.  Because the King’s Overseer found him looking at the gold and killed him.  But he would have freed himself if he could have bribed the guard. (A prophet walks across the stage attended by two guards.)