The Works of Apuleius

Ih the following Milesian narrative, I will string together rarions stories, and regale your listening ears with some merry whispers, if only you will not disdain to look upon this Egyptian papyrus, written with the subtle point of a Nilotic reed; and I wiU proceed to astonish you with the adventures of men changed into different shapes, and, after various vicislitades, restored to their original forms. Who I am, I will teU you in a few words:

Hymettus of Attica, the Isthmus of Ephyre, andTaenarusg of Sparta, famous lands, immortalized in books still more famous, are my old nurseries. There, in the early studies of my youth, I learned the Attic tongue. Soon after, a stranger in the Latian city, I applied myself to the study of the native language of the Eomans; which I acquired with painful labour, without the help of a master.

Behold, then, I preface with asking pardon, should I in any way offend by my unskilful use of a strange and foreign tongue. Indeed this very change of language well befits the description of the transformatory art of magic, of which we purpose here to treat. We will begin, then, a Grecian story: Beader, attend, you wiU be delighted.