﻿54 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



How the Greeks talked, 



WE have hsre some of the expressions which the Greeks used to 

 make use of more than two thousand years ago, when they wished 

 to intimate that a person was (ioing an absurd, foolish, or improper 

 act. Some of them remain in use to the present day. 



He ploughs the air ; 



He washes the Ethiopian ; 



He measures a twig ; 



He opens the door with an axe ; 



He demands tribute of the dead ; 



He holds the serpent by the tail ; 



He takes the bull by the horns ; 



He is making clothes for fishes ; 



He is teaching an old woman to dance ; 



He is teaching a pig to play on a flute ; 



He catches the wind with a net ; 



He changes a fly into an elephant ; 



He takes the spring from the year ; 



He is making ropes of sand ; 



He sprinkles incense on a dunghill ; 



He is ploughing a rock ; 



He is sowing on the sand ; 



He takes oil to extinguish the fire ; 



He chastises the dead ; 



He seeks water in the sea ; 



He puts a rope to the eye of a needle ; 



He is washing the crow ; 



He draws water with a sieve ; 



He gives straw to his dog, and bones to his ass ; 



He numbers the waves ; 



He paves the meadow ; 



He paints the dead ; 



He seeks wool on an ass ; 



He digs the well at the river ; 



He puts a hat on a hen ; 



He runs against the point of a spear ; 



He is erecting broken ports ; 



He fans with a feather ; 



