Apostolis was in shock. In perplexity, he asked:
“What, you buy yourselves wives?”
”We don't buy them, we redeem them from their parents. Or to be more precise, we settle for the 'wisdom' of ancestors, for an ancient custom.” But to myself I thought: There's something wrong here! To avoid plunging deeper into impenetrable debris, I asked him a deflecting question: “But you're a foreigner, how did you get here anyway?”
“Through the Friendship Society and our embassy,” he replied, with a barely audible sigh.
“Friendship, of course, above all,” I said. “But tell me, Apostolis, in your country, in Hellas, three thousand years ago, there was already Asclepius, and in Athens gold coins were being minted, at a time when in these forests here they still went about in bearskins, there were no c
