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This made the matter seem still more plain to Otanes. Nevertheless
he sent a third message to his daughter in these words following:
"Daughter, thou art of noble blood - thou wilt not shrink from a
risk which thy father bids thee encounter. If this fellow be not
Smerdis the son of Cyrus, but the man whom I think him to be, his
boldness in taking thee to be his wife, and lording it over the
Persians, must not be allowed to pass unpunished. Now therefore do
as I command - when next he passes the night with thee, wait till
thou art sure he is fast asleep, and then feel for his ears. If thou
findest him to have ears, then believe him to be Smerdis the son of
Cyrus, but if he has none, know him for Smerdis the Magian."
Phaedima returned for answer, "It would be a great risk. If he was
without ears, and caught her feeling for them, she well knew he would
make away with her - nevertheless she would venture." So Otanes got
his daughter's promise that she would do as he desired. Now Smerdis
the Magian had had his ears cut off in the lifetime of Cyrus son of
Cambyses, as a punishment for a crime of no slight heinousness.
Phaedima therefore, Otanes' daughter, bent on accomplishing what
she had promised her father, when her turn came, and she was taken to
the bed of the Magus (in Persia a man's wives sleep with him in
their turns), waited till he was sound asleep, and then felt for his
ears. She quickly perceived that he had no ears; and of this, as
soon as day dawned, she sent word to her father.
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