An early Bagpipist Joke

While trawling bagpipe images on the internet I came across this seemingly charming scene. What could be more bucolically peaceful? A shepherd whiling away the long hours of looking after sheep by playing his bagpipe as his friend dozes off and the sheep graze nearby in a verdant glade with the blue sky overhead.

However I was brought up short by the legend below, eventually deciphered as: “Côment Mercurius occist Argus” - How Mercury slew Argus.

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