THE LAND OF OXEN.
On the third morning after the battle we sighted the mountains of
Italy,[32] and having entered the gulf,[33] along the north of which
extends the Iapygian Peninsula, we soon came to the mouth of a river
that meandered along a fine plain, in which the broad pastures were
diversified by groves of pines and oleanders. Inland, about a hundred
stadia from the shore, rose a range of grey mountains, partially
wooded, and crowned by a ridge of ragged peaks. The anchorage was
tolerably good, and as we required fresh water and provender for the
cattle, I determined to lay to at once. I had all the animals sent on
shore. This was a work of some difficulty; Bichri with a few armed
men was put in charge of them, and he was to employ the prisoners
to drive them where they could find proper pasturage; my intention
in doing this was that the animals should follow the ships along
the coast as far as the Sicilian Straits, where, unless I succeeded
meanwhile in disposing of them, they should be re-embarked.
[32] Italia, from ἰταλός, _vitulus_.
[33] South of the Adriatic.
"Not much chance of selling them here," said Himilco; "we are in
Vitalia, the land of oxen. If we could have brought them some goats
now, like those we let the Ionians have, we might have found a
market. Of cattle such as these they have more than enough already."
"Probably so," I answered; "but first of all we must find some
inhabited spot amidst all this desolation; we must try and meet
with some of these Italians or Vitalians, whichever they are called.
There must be some Iapygians here too in the south, as well as in the
north. Do you know the Iapygian dialect?"
[Illustration]
Himilco said that, although he was not acquainted with that dialect,
he had some knowledge of the language of the Vitalians, as well as
of that which was spoken by the Opsci, the Marsians, the Volscians,
the Samnites, the Umbrians, the Sabellians of the eastern coast, and
the Latins of the western. He mentioned also that Gisgo was tolerably
familiar with the tongue of the Rasennæ, away to the north-west.
The spokesman of my seven Phocian prisoners now approached me
somewhat timidly, as if he had something to ask. His name was
Aminocles. He began by addressing me:
"King of the Phœnicians!"
I stopped him and told him that my proper appellation was not king
but captain.
"Captain of the Phœnicians," he said; "will you please to tell me
what country we are in?"
"Italy," I answered; "Italy, the land of herds."
"But in what part of it?" he asked.
"In that part," I replied, "which is inhabited by various tribes of
Vitalians; south and north-east dwell the Iapygians; far away to the
north are the Rasennæ, who build great cities, and have a king in the
fertile vales beyond the mountains."
"We know nothing of them," said Aminocles.
"Patience!" interposed Himilco; "perhaps we can refresh his memory.
Phocian, listen to me. Have you ever heard of Opsci?"
"Of Opici? yes," he answered; "our ancestors have left it upon record
that long ages back, before we built Dodona, nay, before we settled
by the Achelous, while we still were dwelling in the cold regions
beyond Thrace, we were in association with a people called the Opici.
At that time mainland and islands both were inhabited by Leleges,
Pelasgians, giants, dwarfs, and monsters; but the gods slew them all
and made way for us. If your Opsci are the same as those Opici, I
suppose I ought to have heard of them before."
"It is of no use perplexing the man," I said; "you see he does not
understand you."
"Wait a bit," Himilco remonstrated; "perhaps I shall succeed even
yet. Tell me, Aminocles, did you ever hear of Tyrsenians?"
"No," said the Phocian.
"Strange!" muttered Himilco to himself. "Again and again I have
heard the Hellenes speak of Vitalia, and call the natives Tyrsenians
or Tyrrhenians; I must try again. Do you know the Siculians, the
Cyclopes, the Lœstrigonians?" he asked aloud.
The man's countenance changed in an instant.
"What! do you mean"--he exclaimed, in a voice agitated with
alarm--"that we have come to the land of such people as those?"
"Aye, that we have," said Himilco, with a chuckle of satisfaction;
"this is the country of the Lœstrigonians; and down there is the
island of the Cyclopes, the Siculians, and all the rest of them. We
are going to pay them a visit, when we have steered safely between
Scylla and Charybdis."
And he laughed outright when he heard Aminocles, wringing his hands,
groan out:
"Oh! better, better far to have perished in the fight than to have
come to this land of monsters. Oh!"
We all laughed. The ridiculousness of the fellow's terror was
irresistible.
"Silence, simpleton!" I said; "the Lœstrigonians will not hurt
you; we shall see plenty of them, but they will not eat you up."
While I was speaking, my attention was directed by the man on watch
to a party of about fifty men, who were advancing across the plain.
Their attitude was far from confident, and they halted on the edge
of a wood, apparently in indecision whether they would come on or
retreat. At length I took upon myself to encourage them to come
forward, and, according to my custom, went alone towards them, making
them every sign of good-will. Presently two of them advanced to meet
me. They were stout, thick-set men, square-shouldered, and of middle
height; they had light complexions, thick beards, and frizzly hair,
that overhung low brows and wide faces. Their legs and arms were
quite bare, and their heads uncovered, but they wore a kind of coarse
woollen kitonet, with another loose garment thrown crosswise over one
shoulder. They were all well armed, having two short copper-headed
lances and a poignard; most of them carried knives or swords in their
girdles, and about a dozen had slings or bows.
One of the two who had come on in advance shouted in Italian:
"Who are you? and what have you come for?"
Himilco, who had followed me, shouted back in the same language that
we were merchants who had come from distant lands, and that we wanted
to open a trade with them.
"But are you not Rasennæ? and is it not your design to rob us our
cattle?"
"Nothing of the sort," we answered; "we are Phœnicians from the
east. Come down to the shore, and you shall see our merchandise."
Both the men retired to their comrades, and appeared to deliberate;
but very shortly they returned, and one of them called out:
"You see these two trees on each side of me; these must be our
boundary."
And, driving his lance firmly into the ground midway between them, he
continued:
"If you advance one step beyond this lance, I take it up, and we
declare ourselves your foes."
[Illustration: "IF YOU ADVANCE ONE STEP BEYOND THIS LANCE."
_To face page 152._]
Himilco repeated his assurance that we had no wish to do them the
slightest injury, and they came up close to where we were. The leader
told us that they were Sabelline Samnites, and that they wanted to
know what payment we were going to make them for the pasturage of our
cattle. I made Himilco satisfy them that they should have a proper
remuneration.
It was now my turn to erect a barrier. This I did by driving stakes
into the earth, and stretching a cord across, beyond which I made
the Samnites understand that I should not permit them to pass. They
raised no objection to my measure of precaution, but crowded up to
inspect our goods, their curiosity meanwhile extending to our ships,
ourselves, and our costume. They were rougher in manners than the
Hellenes, and more suspicious, and I had some trouble in inducing
them to negotiate with us at all; but after a time I succeeded in
securing their confidence to a certain degree, and they informed me
that they were not an agricultural people, and had no cereals nor
vegetables to bring us, but could supply us with any number of sheep
and oxen. They subsequently brought several half-wild pigs, which
particularly attracted the attention of Chamai and Bichri, neither of
whom had seen animals of the kind before. Not understanding the art
of making bread, the Samnites ordinarily eat a kind of pulp called
"masa;" but, as they had on previous visits of other Phœnicians
tasted some loaves, they were now very anxious to be shown how to
make them; they made a number of inquiries likewise about our wine,
but for this they did not seem to care to the same extent as the
Hellenes.
Next morning they came to us again in considerable numbers. I
had observed that during the night they had lighted a good many
beacon-fires over the land, and naturally conjectured that they were
signalling for a gathering of their countrymen, and I accordingly
doubled my ordinary guard. I soon found, however, that there was no
cause for alarm, and that they had no hostile intentions; on the
contrary, they were quite content to follow my injunctions that they
should not approach our boundary line in groups of more than fifty;
they awaited their turn with the utmost patience, and altogether were
far less noisy and demonstrative than we had found the Dorians.
Amongst other things they brought a great quantity of coral, which
after rough weather is washed up on their coasts, but which they
also procure by diving from frail rafts of their own construction;
for although they are very indifferent navigators, they are for the
most part excellent swimmers. The most expert coral-divers are the
Iapygians, those who dwell amongst the Samnites and the Bretians,
as well as the natives of Iapygia proper. Some few of them were to
be noticed amongst our Samnite visitors; they were generally tall
and wore no beards; they had round heads and brown skins, being in
many respects very like the Cydonians: in their manners they were
more polished and in their conversation more communicative than
the other Italians. They seemed to me to bear a marked resemblance
to the Siculians; and I cannot help thinking that the Iapygians,
the Siculians, the Cydonians, and the natives discovered by our
forefathers in Malta, are the aborigines of their respective
countries. Afterwards, from the coast of Asia came the Leleges and
the Pelasgians (tribes that bear a strong likeness to the Lydians,
Lycians, and Carians), and these settled in Dodanim and the isles,
being succeeded by the Hellenes and Italians, who came southward from
the confines of Thrace. Of the origin of the Rasennæ I am perfectly
ignorant: all I know is that Phœnicians who have visited the
mountains whence the rock-crystal is obtained, and which lie north of
the Eridanus, at the head of the Iapygian Gulf, have reported that
they have fallen in with a people who call themselves Rhœtians,
and who speak a language in many respects identical with that spoken
by the Rasennæ.
Two days were spent in bartering my cumbersome booty for coral,
which could be compactly stored away. As the captured boats were
emptied, I had all but two of them broken up. I reserved only the
planking, which was sure to be useful, and the masts, which might
be of service if we should require extra spars. After the spoil had
been all exchanged away, I commenced paying for what I purchased
with glass-beads, lance-heads, and sword-blades; the last of these
articles were so eagerly coveted, that for four blades, worth about a
shekel apiece, I obtained at least four hundred shekels' worth of the
finest coral. When I expressed my surprise at the quantity of coral
in their possession, they explained that it was the accumulation of
a very long time, adding that they had intended disposing of it at
one of the emporiums which the Phœnicians had established on the
western coast, but that our arrival had saved them the trouble of the
journey. They told me that they should have been glad if I could
supply them with goats, and stated that those which had been brought
over by our countrymen, and purchased by the Marsians and Volscians,
were rapidly spreading in the mountains of the north.
The Samnites have no regular towns, but live in small scattered
hamlets, consisting generally of a few thatched huts built of
boughs of trees cemented with mud. They have very little notion of
agriculture, and the Latins of the west coast (especially those of
the valley of the Tiber) are far superior husbandmen; the Latins,
however, have a city named Alba, occupying a secure position between
a mountain and a lake. Along the coast I know only of a single
sea-port, and that belongs to the Rasennæ, and is named Populonia.
These Rasennæ are no contemptible sailors; that they were bold and
unscrupulous pirates, I had long known by hearsay, but here on the
Samnite coast I was destined to have a confirmation of the fact from
my own experience.
Having completed all the business that was practicable, I was
preparing to renew our voyage, when one of the Samnites came running
up to his associates, and shouted something which appeared to throw
them into a state of great excitement.
"What ails the fellows?" said Himilco; "they seem going mad. Is the
cock-head Nergal at their heels?"
The commotion was soon explained.
"Pirates! Pirates!" shouted a number of the Samnites in a breath.
"Quick, Phœnicians, on your guard! The Tyrrhenians are coming!
They are rounding the point! they will be on us directly! Away! Away
to the mountains!"
Without losing a minute, I made Jonah sound an alarm and summon our
men to their ships. Hannibal donned his helmet and marshalled his
men, including the seven Phocians; the overlooker of the rowers,
scourge in hand, hurried the oarsmen to their benches, and in a short
time we were three stadia from the shore and ready for action.
Chamai congratulated himself that although his right arm was disabled
he was still capable of doing good execution with his left.
"What new friends are we to have the pleasure of seeing to-day?"
asked Bichri, with a smile, as he fastened on his quiver and strung
his bow.
I told him that they were Tyrrhenians, or Rasennæ, from the
north-west of Italy, who traded a little, but did a good deal more
in the way of privateering along the coast; and that, although I was
not aware of their having ever hitherto come into collision with
Phœnicians, I had very little doubt they carried freight enough to
make it worth our while to risk an engagement with them.
"Yes, they are new to me," said Hannibal; "and perhaps we can give
them some new lessons in the art of fighting; they may like a taste
of the Chaldean mace that King David gave me."
Anxious to understand the true position of things, I sent the
_Cabiros_ ahead to reconnoitre, ordering her to keep as close
as possible to the shore until she reached the extremity of the
headland, whence she could command a view of the whole line of coast;
she returned with the intelligence that there were five ships, which
seemed of a long build, advancing leisurely towards us by making
short tacks to catch the wind, and that in about half an hour they
would be in sight.
Whilst I was pondering in my mind what line of action I should
follow, my eye fell upon the two boats of the Hellenes which had been
spared in the general demolition, and it occurred to me that I could
make them of service.
"How about our soundings, Himilco?" I said.
"Ten cubits, and a rocky bottom," was the pilot's prompt reply.
Gisgo was on board the _Ashtoreth_. He had come to bring the report
of the _Cabiros_.
"Tell me, Gisgo," I said, "how much water do those Tyrrhenian
privateers draw? Is it six cubits?"
"Aye, six at the very least; they look low upon the water, but they
sink very deep; it is their excessive weight that keeps them from
lurching."
"Very well; now go to those two boats, scuttle them, and sink them
there, right in front of my ship. _There!_" I said, pointing with my
hand.
Himilco and Gisgo chuckled again with delight as they went to do as
they were ordered, and in the course of twenty minutes the boats were
both sunk, and formed a regular stockade about three cubits below the
surface of the water.
My next proceeding was to direct the _Cabiros_ to lower her sail,
and to pretend to be dragging herself with difficulty towards the
headland, as though she had sustained some serious injury. I then
made the _Dagon_ sheer off about two stadia out to sea, ordering
her to make her way back to the _Ashtoreth_ by short tacks, as if
she were coming to her assistance. Meanwhile I gave my ship the
appearance of being a disabled merchantman; I lowered my sail, made
my rowers struggle with their oars without propelling the vessel, and
told all my soldiers to slip their shields, and to lie down flat upon
the deck so as not to be seen.
"What's up now, Captain?" said Chamai raising his head, with a merry
grin.
I told him that I was giving a sprat to catch a mackerel; and that if
he would have patience I hoped he would be satisfied with the haul.
It was a very short time now before the Rasennæ caught sight of
us. Immediately one of the five ships bore down directly upon the
_Cabiros_; two of them started off in pursuit of the _Dagon_,
which was still out to sea, and the remaining two steered for the
_Ashtoreth_, which, as though perfectly helpless, exhibited no sign
of resistance.
When they had come within a stadium of me I had ample opportunity
of examining the details of their boats and equipments. Although
the boats were long, they were very ill-constructed; they had only
a single deck, and were each manned by thirty rowers; the stern was
somewhat raised, but the deck was almost level with the sea; on the
prow was painted a pair of huge red and white eyes which seemed to
stare fixedly at the waves. The men on board were very tall; they had
large heads, wide flat faces, reddish complexions and thin beards;
although their limbs were muscular and well-developed, their gait
was very awkward. They were armed with ponderous lances, hatchets,
bucklers, and round helmets which had no crests; whilst their legs
were protected either by sandals or by pointed gaiters. Most of
them wore tunics of some dark colour, which, though longer than our
kitonets, were shorter than those worn by the Syrians. On their
arms and throats was a profusion of bracelets and necklaces, and
their girdles, which were very wide, were ornamented with plates of
polished bronze. After looking at them steadily for a time, Abigail
declared that she would rather die than fall into the hands of such
revolting creatures.
Coming within hail, the Rasennæ began shouting furiously at us, but
we took no heed. Finding that their challenge was unanswered, they
sent one of their boats in front of me, whilst the other passed round
the stern intending to cut me off from the shore; but they reckoned
without their host. The former boat dashed itself violently against
the stockade of concealed boats, and after two or three ineffectual
efforts to disengage herself, heeled over on her side, and remained
with her stern considerably sunk below the sea.
My trumpet sounded, my oars dipped, my warriors started to their
feet, and a shout of triumph rang through the air.
Thoroughly taken aback by our sudden revival, the other boat
endeavoured to tack about to get out of our way; but so clumsily did
she set about the manœuvre, that she only succeeded in running her
stern aground, and being thus entirely at my mercy, I poured into
her such a shower of missiles as probably her commander and crew had
never before conceived possible.
"Here, Tyrrhenians, Rasennæ, or whatever you call yourselves,"
shouted Hannibal, as he worked away at his scorpions; "here is a
heavenly shower of manna for you! If these arrows and Cretan pebbles
are not to your taste, we can find you a nice little lot of spiked
stakes."
Bichri, too, was quite in his element. With such an immovable mark
within bowshot, he selected his victims just as he pleased, and
was careful to choose those who wore any article of apparel or any
ornament that particularly struck his fancy.
"Look at that fellow," I heard him say, "with the necklace of gold
beads inlaid with blue and enamelled with white: I must have him; but
I must hit him on the head, or I shall be spoiling that charming bit
of embroidery he is wearing."
As our deck was several cubits higher than that of our antagonists,
their archers were comparatively powerless; and in order to protect
themselves under the incessant discharge of our missiles, they took
refuge in their hold. Observing their retreat, Hannibal, Chamai and
Bichri, with a few followers, leaped down upon their deck; Jonah, in
his impetuous haste to go after them, came sprawling down headlong
with a tremendous thud, but rising rapidly to his feet, caught hold
of the heels of an unhappy Tyrrhenian who had not had time to make
his escape, twirled him round and round in the air like a sling, and
dashed out his brains against the side of the vessel. Short work
was made with the few who still remained above board, and in a few
minutes more, our people, who had forced their way down the hatchway,
reappeared, bringing with them twenty men, of whom, to my surprise I
found that no less than eleven were Phœnicians. Their costume and
physiognomy revealed this at a glance.
Free now to turn my attention from the shore to the sea, I found
that the _Dagon_ had already sunk one of the privateers, and in
concert with the _Cabiros_ was driving the remaining two fast inland.
I joined in the pursuit, and after a short chase, one of the boats,
overwhelmed by the volleys of stones which we threw from our engines,
found all further resistance useless, and made signs of surrender.
The capture of this vessel cost us the lives of two of our men, and
while we were engaged in securing our prize, the remaining boat took
advantage of our occupation to effect an escape.
We lost as little time as possible in making our way back to the
coast towards the prizes we had left there. We were only just in
time. The Samnites had been watching the issue of the contest,
and were hastening down from the heights to pillage the abandoned
vessels; but as I sent some detachments of men to keep guard, they
had for the present to keep their distance, and to be content to bide
their time before they could enjoy the crumbs of the expected feast.
Our first business now was to empty the boat that had struck upon the
sunken stockade; it had already nearly two cubits of water in its
hold, and was consequently liable to sink at any moment. There were
no prisoners to be made here; during our engagement with the other
vessels some of the men had escaped in a small boat, and the rest had
swum to shore, but only to be captured by the Samnites. The _Cabiros_
and _Dagon_, however, had thirty-three prisoners, making, with
the nine I had myself taken, a total of forty-two, who were first
stripped of everything of any value that was found belonging to them,
and then distributed amongst our three crews, who would be entitled
to dispose of them to our colonists on the coast of Libya, where no
doubt they would be in demand either for soldiers or artisans.
The eleven Phœnicians were highly delighted at what had befallen
them; their capture was really a deliverance. They told me that
they had formed part of the crew of a Sidonian gaoul which had
been wrecked off the coast of Sardinia, and that they had escaped
in one of the small boats. They had attempted to reach one of our
settlements in the island, but tempestuous weather had frustrated
their plan, and they had been carried out to sea, and finally drifted
to the mainland. They had next tried to make their way northward to
one of the Phœnician marts, established on the coast; and it was
more than a week ago since they had fallen into the hands of the
Rasennæ, who had sent them to serve on board their privateers. All
of them were ragged, and more than half-starved; and their rejoicing
seemed unbounded, when I not only provided them with clothes and
food, but allowed them to enter my service on an equal footing with
the rest of my crews. Amongst them was an experienced helmsman and
a master mariner; so that all our losses were to a great extent
replaced, especially as the whole of the wounded were in a fair way
of recovery.
Stripping the dead, collecting the booty, conveying it on board, and
making lists of it all, occupied us till the close of the day, and it
was past sunset before we were at liberty to avail ourselves of the
wind, which was quite favourable for our coasting along towards the
Straits of Sicily. We left the captured boats, and whatever plunder
was too heavy or too valueless to be worth carrying away, to the
Samnites, who, with shouts of joy, rushed forward to take possession
of their unexpected prize.
The evening meal was merry. Our successful negotiations, our
victorious skirmish, our release of our countrymen, our valuable
booty, were all topics of mutual congratulation. Hannibal was loud in
his praises of my stratagem of the stockade.
"Ah! that's an old trick," said Himilco; "we once played it off upon
the Carians of Rhodes, and took eleven of their ships and no end of
plunder. Old Tarshish mariners are adepts at schemes of that sort."
Chamai held up a pair of twisted bracelets, and a necklace of a
similar pattern, ornamented with a large flat crescent.
"Are these solid gold, captain?" he asked me.
"Aye, and of the finest sort," I answered; "it is the gold they get
from the Eridanus and the Rhone; you are to be congratulated on your
lucky prize."
"Not one man did I either kill or catch," said Hanno; "and I suppose
I shall have to be content with my share-and-share-alike portion of
the plunder; but I confess I should be very pleased if I might have a
vase which I discovered amongst the captured goods; it is exquisitely
painted, and I have no doubt that these Rasennæ, ugly as they are
themselves, are highly-skilled as artists."
I told him that I saw no difficulty in yielding to his wish, and
requested him to submit to me his inventory of the spoil. Casting my
eye at it, I was not surprised to find that the articles made of gold
were considerably larger in number than those made of silver. I knew
that the Tyrrhenians had little or no communication with Tarshish and
the other silver-producing countries, whilst they have free access to
the sands of the Eridanus, and that by the road made by the Ligurian
convicts they could cross the mountains to the Rhone. There were
a good many articles of copper which came from Lower Vitalia, and
amongst them some figures, which were evidently images of gods.
I sent for Gisgo to come on board and interrogate the prisoners in
their own language. In their peculiar muffled accent they informed
us that they had come from Populonia, and were subjects of King
Tarchnas, who ruled over twenty Tyrrhenian cities. Populonia, they
said, was their only sea-port, and thence they always set sail upon
their cruises, their ships being manned with Ligurians as oarsmen and
sailors, whilst their fighting men were nearly all Rasennæ. Two of
their chiefs they mentioned as having been killed in the fight, whose
names were Vivenna and Spurinna; Himilco gave it as his opinion that
these names were identical with the Vitalian Vibius and Spurius.
Upon being shown the copper images of the gods which had been
found amongst the plunder, the prisoners recognised them at once,
and told us the names. There were Turms, the Hermes of the Hellenes;
Turan, whom I believed to be our Ashtoreth; Sethlans, the same as our
Khousor Phtah; Fouflouns the Dionysus of the Hellenes; and another
called Menvra, of whom I had never heard, but whom Himilco declared
to the Vitalian goddess Minerva.
The Tyrrhenians went on to say that they were allies of the Latins
and of the Opsci, or Occi, a name which in our language signifies
"workmen;" and that the semi-barbarous Samnites, although of the
same race and speaking the same tongue as the Opsci, had committed
depredations against them on the river Volturnus, or "the rolling
stream;" and had likewise attacked the Latin settlement of Novla, or
"the new city." In defence of their allies, the Rasennæ had declared
war against the Samnites, and were on their way to attack them when
they encountered us, and fell into our power. This was all the
information they had to give me, and I sent the men back to the care
of the crew, and we all retired to rest.
[Illustration: CLOSE TO ETNA.
_To face page 163._]
The day had hardly dawned when I rose, and looking a little to the
left, I could see behind us the light, the flames, and the lurid
smoke that issued from the crater of Mount Etna. The two women and
all the men, who had never before seen such a spectacle, looked
on, some in astonishment, some in downright terror. Hannibal was
as surprised as anyone, and declared that except he knew to the
contrary, he should have taken it for the mouth of hell; adding, that
he thought it a great pity that all that mighty force of fire could
not be utilised; it would make a splendid apparatus for reducing an
obstinate city in a siege. To my inquiry whether he had never seen
the burning mountain in Cilicia, he replied that, although he had
passed several times, it had never been his good fortune to be there
at the time of an eruption.
We passed sufficiently close to Etna to be able most distinctly to
hear its roar. The women, really alarmed, betook themselves to their
cabin. Hanno asked what was the distance of the volcano from us.
"Sixty stadia at least," I answered; "you seem surprised at our
seeing it so plainly, but in the broad daylight it will not be nearly
so conspicuous, although it is very lofty. My own reason for coming
so close to it now is that we may the more directly steer into the
Straits of Sicily."
Jonah, who at first had been terribly alarmed, did not disguise his
satisfaction that we were not going any closer to the mountain. "All
very well in the distance," he said; "it is the kitchen of Nergal,
the old cock, whose head is up in the sky and his feet here on earth.
Yes, it is his kitchen; where he roasts his behemoths and leviathans;
his smallest platter is a good deal bigger than this deck. But the
time is coming when El-Adonai shall demolish him, and the children of
Israel shall feast upon him and his dainties!"
"Hold your tongue, you fool!" said Chamai. "None of your idiot
stories of Dan, and your fables of the drunken Ephraimites!"
"Neither stories nor fables!" retorted Jonah; "have you not a proof
before your eyes that it is all true? What will the people of Eltekeh
say when I tell them I have seen Nergal's kitchen?"
"Hush! I say! Shut up!" And as Chamai spoke, he gave the giant a
violent blow across his mouth with his open hand.
"Humph!" he growled; "I must hold my tongue, must I?"
We now made rapid headway towards the north, and as we approached
the strait, Himilco and his sailors amused themselves by working up
Aminocles and the other Phocians to the highest pitch of terror.
"That is the mountain of the Cyclopes that you have been looking at,"
he said to them; "now's your time to look out sharp to the right
and left, and you shall see Scylla and Charybdis. You know who they
are. They are the ravenous monsters that swallow up whole ships and
all their crews. Listen! you can hear them roaring now; they seem
desperately hungry."
"I remember," said one of the sailors, "seeing Charybdis suck in
three gaouls and two galleys at one draught, just as easily as I
could drain a cup of wine."
"And would you believe," interposed the man who was at the helm,
"that I have seen the heads of Scylla shatter a whole fleet with such
violence that the admiral was pitched clean over there into the jaws
of the volcano?"
Himilco, of course, could not allow himself to be outdone by the men,
and proceeded to say:
"I have been nearer to Scylla than any of you. One cloudy night I
was at the prow, vainly endeavouring to make out the Cabiri, when
all at once I felt her foamy mouth open gently, close behind me, and
snap off my cap--lucky it wasn't my head too--and before I could turn
round, Charybdis had swallowed a whole bottle of my best Berytos and
three whole cheeses!"
Jonah, who was looking on intensely interested, said:
"And what did you do, pilot? I know what I should have done. I should
have given her a good crack across her muzzle."
"O, it was no good my saying anything to her; she wouldn't have
understood me; the only language she can comprehend is that of the
Lœstrigonians."
He could hardly speak for laughing; but Aminocles cowered down upon
the deck, and covered his head with his loose tunic, the other six
Phocians scampering off in dismay to secrete themselves in the hold.