Early next morning the singers set out for the house of Porphyrius.

The party was not complete, however, for Dada had been forced to remain at home.

The shoes that the old man had flung to scare away the daemon had caught in the girl's dress which she had just washed, and had dragged it down on to the earth; she had found it in the morning full of holes burnt by the ashes into the damp material.

Dada had no other presentable garment, so, in spite of her indignant refusal and many tears, she had to remain indoors with Papias.

Agne's anxious offers to stay in her place with the little boy and to lend Dada her dress, both Karnis and his wife had positively refused; and Dada had lent her aid--at first silently though willingly and then with her usual merriment--in twining garlands for the others and in dressing Agne's smooth black plaits with a wreath of ivy and violets.
The men were already washed, anointed and crowned with poplar and laurel when a steward arrived from Porphyrius to bid them follow him to his master's house.