"Oh, oh--Oh, oh--Oh, oh--Oh, oh--"

In another play, there is a constant chorus of frogs croaking from the
infernal marshes.

"Brekekekex, coax, coax, brekekekex, coax, coax."

In "The Birds," the songsters of the woods are frequently heard trilling
their lays. As they were only befeathered men, this must have been a
somewhat comic performance. The king of birds, transformed from Tereus,
King of Thrace, twitters in the following style.

"Epopopopopopopopopopoi! io! io! come, come, come, come, come. Tio, tio,
tio, tio, tio, tio, tio! trioto, trioto, totobrix! Torotorotorotorolix!
Ciccabau, ciccabau! Torotorotorotorotililix."

Rapidity of utterance was also aimed at in some parts of the choruses,
and sometimes very long words had to be pronounced without pause--such
as green-grocery-market-woman, and garlic-bread-selling-hostesses. At
the end of the Ecclesiazusæ, there is a word of twenty-seven
syllables--a receipt for a mixture--as multifarious in its contents as a
Yorkshire pie.

We may conclude that there was a humour in tone as well as of rhythm in
fashion before the time of Aristophanes, and we read that there was a
certain ventriloquist named Eurycles; but Aristophanes must be content
to bear the reproach of having been the first to introduce punning. He
probably had accomplices among his contemporaries, but they have been
lost in obscurity. Playing with words seems to have commenced very
early. The organs of speech are not able to produce any great number of