MICHAEL PSELLUS' DIALOGUE,

TIMOTHY AND THRACIAN,

ON THE OPERATION OF DEMONS,

TIMOTHY.—Is it long, Thracian, since you visited Byzantium?

THRACIAN.—Yes, it is long, Timothy; two years perhaps, or more. I have been abroad.

TIMOTHY.—But where, and why, and engaged in what business, were you away so long?

THRACIAN.—The questions you put would take too long to answer just now. I would have to compose a narrative like Alcinius's (b) A reference to a classical storyteller or perhaps a lost work. if I were obliged to detail everything I was present at and everything I endured while constrained to associate with impious characters—those Euchitæ, or, as many call them, Enthusiasts. Have you not heard of them at all?

TIMOTHY.—Why, I understand that there are among us individuals as godless as they are absurd, and that they exist in the midst of the sacred choir 5 In holy orders. (to speak in the style of a comedian); but as to their dogmas, their customs, their laws, their proceedings, and their discourses, I have not yet been able to learn anything. Therefore, I beg of you to tell me most explicitly whatever you know. If you are disposed to oblige an intimate acquaintance, I will even add, a friend.

THRACIAN.—Even have it so, friend Timothy, though it is enough to give one a headache if he but attempts to