Old Letter from Xanthe

Sent to the inhabitants of Old Sheepfold, this command orders the villagers to deliver their youngest daughter

to Xanthe's gates before the moon wanes. Refusal, the letter threatens, will bring the boyaress herself

to their homesteads to take the girl by force, and disobedience will be visited upon the entire kin.

No explanation is offered for what the girl is wanted for; it is presented simply as long-standing law of the land.