I have told you, used to come to amuse
herself with the negro, making sure of my silence on account of the
pieces of meat, bread, or cheese she threw me. Gifts have much power,
Scipio.

_Scip._ Much. Don't digress: go on.

_Berg._ I remember, when I was a student, to have heard from the master
a Latin phrase or adage, as they call it, which ran thus: _habet bovem
in lingua_.

_Scip._ O confound your Latin! Have you so soon forgotten what we have
said of those who mix up that language with ordinary conversation?

_Berg._ But this bit of Latin comes in here quite pat; for you must know
that the Athenians had among their coin one which was stamped with the
figure of an ox; and whenever a judge failed to do justice in
consequence of having been corrupted, they used to say, "He has the ox
on his tongue."

_Scip._ I do not see the application.

_Berg._ Is it not very manifest, since I was rendered mute many times by
the negress's gifts, and was careful not to bark when she came down to
meet her amorous negro? Wherefore I repeat, that great is the power of
gifts.

_Scip._ I have already admitted it; and were it not to avoid too long a
digression, I could adduce many instances in point; but I will speak of
these another time, if heaven grants me an opportunity of narrating my
life to you.

_Berg._ God grant it! meanwhile I continue. At last my natural integrity
prevailed over the negress's bribes; and one very dark night, when she
came down as usual, I seized her without barking, in order not to alarm
the household; and in a trice I tore her shift all to pieces, and bit a
piece out of her thigh. This little joke confined her for eight days to
her bed, for which she accounted to her masters by some pretended
illness or other. When she was recovered, she came down another night: I
attacked her again; and without biting, scratched her all over as if I
had been carding wool. Our battles were always noiseless, and the
negress always had the worst of them; but she had her revenge. She
stinted my rations and my bones, and those of my own body began to show
themselves through my skin. But though she cut short my victuals, that
did not hinder me from barking; so to make an end of me altogether, she
threw me a sponge fried in grease. I perceived the snare, and knew that
what she offered me was worse than poison, for it would swell up in the
stomach, and never leave it with life. Judging then that it was
impossible for me to gu