ive it?"

"Thou shalt give it to Orestes, son of Agamemnon. And that which is
written therein is this: '_I that was sacrificed in Aulis, even
Iphigenia, who am alive and yet dead to my own people, bid thee----_'"

But when Orestes heard this, he brake in, "Where is this Iphigenia? Hath
the dead come back among the living?"

"Thou seest her in me. But interrupt me not. '_I bid thee fetch me
before I die to Argos from a strange land, taking me from the altar that
is red with the blood of strangers, whereat I serve._' And if Orestes
ask by what means I am alive, thou shalt say that Artemis put a hind in
my stead, and that the priest, thinking that he smote me with the knife,
slew the beast, and that the goddess brought me to this land."

Then said Pylades, "My oath is easy to keep. Orestes, take thou this
tablet from thy sister."

Then Orestes embraced his sister, crying--for she turned from him, not
knowing what she should think--"O my sister, turn not from me; for I am
thy brother whom thou didst not think to see."

And when she yet doubted, he told her of certain things by which she
might know him to be Orestes--how that she had woven a tapestry wherein
was set forth the strife between Atreus and Thyestes concerning the
golden lamb; and that she had given a lock of her hair at Aulis to be a
memorial of her; and that there was laid in her chamber at Argos the
ancient spear of Pelops, her father's grandsire, with which he slew
Oenomaues and won Hippodamia to be his wife.

And when she heard this, she knew that he was indeed Orestes, whom,
being an infant and the latest born of his mother, she had in time past
held in her arms. But when the two had talked together for a space,
rejoicing over each other and telling the things that had befallen them,
Pylades said, "Greetings of friends after long parting are well; but we
must needs consider how best we shall escape from this land of the
barbarians."

But Iphigenia answered, "Yet nothing shall hinder me from knowing how
fareth my sister Electra."

"She is married," said Orestes, "to this Pylades, whom thou seest."

"And of what country is he and who is his father?"

"His father is Strophius the Phocian; and he is a kinsman, for his
mother was the daughter of Atreus and a friend also such as none other
is to me."

Then Orestes set forth to his sister the cause of his coming to the land
of the Taurians. And he said, "Now help me in this, my sister, that we
may be