So sang the lads; and the goatherd thus bespoke them, 'Sweet is thy
mouth, O Daphnis, and delectable thy song! Better is it to listen to
thy singing, than to taste the honeycomb. Take thou the pipe, for
thou hast conquered in the singing match. Ah, if thou wilt but teach
some lay, even to me, as I tend the goats beside thee, this blunt-
horned she-goat will I give thee, for the price of thy teaching, this
she-goat that ever fills the milking pail above the brim.'

Then was the boy as glad,--and leaped high, and clapped his hands
over his victory,--as a young fawn leaps about his mother.

But the heart of the other was wasted with grief, and desolate, even
as a maiden sorrows that is newly wed.

From this time Daphnis became the foremost among the shepherds, and
while yet in his earliest youth, he wedded the nymph Nais.



IDYL IX



Daphnis and Menalcas, at the bidding of the poet, sing the joys of
the neatherds and of the shepherds life. Both receive the thanks of
the poet, and rustic prizes--a staff and a horn, made of a spiral
shell. Doubts have been expressed as to the authenticity of the
prelude and concluding verses. The latter breathe all Theocritus's
enthusiastic love of song.