whole band, and found that there were forty-six men including himself.
He then numbered off twenty-two of them, and put Eurylochus (who was
one of his chief officers, and second only to himself in sagacity) at
their head. Ulysses took command of the remaining twenty-two men in
person. Then, taking off his helmet, he put two shells into it, on one
of which was written, "Go," and on the other, "Stay." Another person
now held the helmet, while Ulysses and Eurylochus drew out each a
shell; and the word "Go" was found written on that which Eurylochus
had drawn. In this manner it was decided that Ulysses and his
twenty-two men were to remain at the seaside until the other party
should have found out what sort of treatment they might expect at the
mysterious palace. As there was no help for it, Eurylochus
immediately set forth at the head of his twenty-two followers, who
went off in a very melancholy state of mind, leaving their friends in
hardly better spirits than themselves.
No sooner had they clambered up the cliff than they discerned the tall
marble towers of the palace, ascending, as white as snow, out of the
lovely green shadow of the trees which surrounded it. A gush of smoke
came from a chimney in the rear of the edifice. The vapor rose high in
the air, and, meeting with a breeze, was wafted seaward, and made to
pass over the heads of the hungry mariners. When people's appetites
are keen, they have a very quick scent for anything savory in the
wind.
"That smoke comes from the kitchen!" cried one of them, turning up his
nose as high as he could, and snuffing eagerly. "And, as sure as I'm a
half-starved vagabond, I smell roast meat in it."
"Pig, roast pig!" said another. "Ah, the dainty little porker! My
mouth waters for him."
"Let us make haste," cried the others, "or we shall be too late for
the good cheer!"
But scarcely had they made half a dozen steps from the edge of the
cliff, when a bird came fluttering to meet them. It was the same
pretty little bird, with the purple wings and body, the yellow legs,
the golden collar round its neck, and the crown-like tuft upon its
head, whose behavior had so much surprised Ulysses. It hovered about
Eurylochus, and almost brushed his face with its wings.
"Peep, peep, pe--weep!" chirped the bird.
So plaintively intelligent was the sound, that it seemed as if the
little creature were going to break its heart with some mighty secret
that it had to tell, and only this one poor note to tell it with.
"My pretty bird," said Eurylochus--for he was a wary person, and let
no token of harm escape his notice--"my pretty bird, who sent you
hither? And what is the message which you bring?"
"Peep, peep, pe--weep!" replied the bird, very sorrowfully.
Then it flew towards the edge of the cliff, and looked round at them,
as if exceedingly anxious that they should return whence they came.
Eurylochus and a few others were inclined to turn back. They could not
help suspecting that the purple bird must be aware of something
mischievous that would befall them at the palace, and the knowledge of
which affected its airy spirit with a human sympathy and sorrow. But
the rest of the voyagers, snuffing up the smoke from the palace
kitchen, ridiculed the idea of returning to the vessel. One of them
(more brutal than his fellows, and the most notorious gormandizer in
the whole crew) said such a cruel and wicked thing, that I wonder the
mere thought did not turn him into a wild beast, in shape, as he
already was in his nature.
"This troublesome and impertinent little fowl," said he, "would make a
delicate titbit to begin dinner with. Just one plump morsel, melting
away between the teeth. If he comes within my reach, I'll catch him,
and give him to the palace cook to be roasted on a skewer."
The words were hardly out of his mouth, before the purple bird flew
away, crying, "Peep, peep, pe--weep!" more dolorously than ever.
"That bird," remarked Eurylochus, "knows more than we do about what
awaits us at the palace."
"Come on, then," cried his comrades, "and we'll soon know as much as
he does."
The party, accordingly, went onward through the green and pleasant
wood. Every little while they caught new glimpses of the marble
palace, which looked more and more beautiful the nearer they
approached it.
At one place they came to a crystal spring, and paused to drink at it
for want of liquor which they liked better. Looking into its bosom,
they beheld their own faces dimly reflected, but so extravagantly
distorted by the gush and motion of the water, that each one of them
appeared to be laughing at himself and all his companions. So
ridiculous were these images of themselves, indeed, that they did
really laugh aloud, and could hardly be grave again as soon as they
wished. And after they had drank, they grew still merrier than before.
"It has a twang of the wine-cask in it," said one, smacking his lips.
"Make haste!" cried his fellows; "we'll find the wine-cask itself at
the palace; and that will be better than a hundred crystal fountains."
Then they quickened their pace, and capered for joy at the thought of
the savory banquet at which they hoped to be guests. But Eurylochus
told them that he felt as if he were walking in a dream.
"If I am really awake," continued he, "then, in my opinion, we are on
the point of meeting with some stranger adventure than any that befell
us in the cave of Polyphemus, or among the gigantic man-eating
Læstrygons, or in the windy palace of King Æolus, which stands on a
brazen-walled island. This kind of dreamy feeling always comes over me
before any wonderful occurrence. If you take my advice, you will turn
back."
"No, no," answered his comrades, snuffing the air, in which the scent
from the palace kitchen was now very perceptible. "We would not turn
back, though we were certain that the king of the Læstrygons, as big
as a mountain, would sit at the head of the table, and huge
Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops, at its foot."
At length they came within full sight of the palace, which proved to
be very large and lofty, with a great number of airy pinnacles upon
its roof. Though it was now midday, and the sun shone brightly over
the marble front, yet its snowy whiteness, and its fantastic style of
architecture, made it look unreal, like the frostwork on a window
pane, or like the shapes of castles which one sees among the clouds by
moonlight. But, just then, a puff of wind brought down the smoke of
the kitchen chimney among them, and caused each man to smell the odor
of the dish that he liked best and, after scenting it, they thought
everything else moonshine, and nothing real save this palace, and save
the banquet that was evidently ready to be served up in it.
So they hastened their steps towards the portal, but had not got
halfway across the wide lawn, when a pack of lions, tigers, and wolves
came bounding to meet them. The terrified mariners started back,
expecting no better fate than to be torn to pieces and devoured. To
their surprise and joy, however, these wild beasts merely capered
around them, wagging their tails, offering their heads to be stroked
and patted, and behaving just like so many well-bred house-dogs, when
they wish to express their delight at meeting their master or their
master's friends. The biggest lion licked the feet of Eurylochus; and
every other lion, and every wolf and tiger, singled out one of his
two-and-twenty followers, whom the beast fondled as if he loved him
better than a beef-bone.
But, for all that, Eurylochus imagined that he saw something fierce
and savage in their eyes; nor would he have been surprised, at any
moment, to feel the big lion's terrible claws, or to see each of the
tigers make a deadly spring, or each wolf leap at the throat of the
man whom he had fondled. Their mildness seemed unreal, and a mere
freak; but their savage nature was as true as their teeth and claws.
Nevertheless, the men went safely across the lawn with the wild beasts
frisking about them, and doing no manner of harm; although, as they
mounted the steps of the palace, you might possibly have heard a low
growl, particularly from the wolves, as if they thought it a pity,
after all, to let the strangers pass without so much as tasting what
they were made of.
Eurylochus and his followers now passed under a lofty portal, and
looked through the open doorway into the interior of the palace. The
first thing that they saw was a spacious hall, and a fountain in the
middle of it, gushing up towards the ceiling out of a marble basin,
and falling back into it with a continual plash. The water of this
fountain, as it spouted upward, was constantly taking new shapes, not
very distinctly, but plainly enough for a nimble fancy to recognize
what they were. Now it was the shape of a man in a long robe, the
fleecy whiteness of which was made out of the fountain's spray; now it
was a lion, or a tiger, or a wolf, or an ass, or, as often as anything
else, a hog, wallowing in the marble basin as if it were his sty. But,
before the strangers had time to look closely at this wonderful sight,
their attention was drawn off by a very sweet and agreeable sound. A
woman's voice was singing melodiously in another room of the palace,
and with her voice was mingled the noise of a loom, at which she was
probably seated, weaving a rich texture of cloth, and intertwining the
high and low sweetness of her voice into a rich tissue of harmony.
By and by the song came to an end; and then, all at once, there were
several feminine voices, talking airily and cheerfully, with now and
then a merry burst of laughter, such as you may always hear when three
or four young women sit at work together.
"What a sweet song that was!" exclaimed one of the voyagers.
"Too sweet, indeed," answered Eurylochus, shaking his head. "Yet it
was not so sweet as the song of the Sirens, those bird-like damsels
who wanted to tempt us on the rocks so that our vessel might be
wrecked, and our bones left whitening along the shore."
"But just listen to the pleasant voices of those maidens, and that
buzz of the loom as the shuttle passes to and fro," said another
comrade. "What a domestic, household, homelike sound it is! Ah, before
that weary siege of Troy, I used to hear the buzzing loom and the
women's voices under my own roof. Shall I never hear them again? nor
taste those nice little savory dishes which my dearest wife knew how
to serve up?"
"Tush! we shall fare better here," said another. "But how innocently
those women are babbling together, without guessing that we overhear
them! And mark that richest voice of all, so pleasant and familiar,
but which yet seems to have the authority of a mistress among them.
Let us show ourselves at once. What harm can the lady of the palace
and her maidens do to mariners and warriors like us?"
"Remember," said Eurylochus, "that it was a young maiden who beguiled
three of our friends into the palace of the king of the Læstrygons,
who ate up one of them in the twinkling of an eye."
No warning or persuasion, however, had any effect on his companions.
They went up to a pair of folding doors at the farther end of the
hall, and throwing them wide open, passed into the next room.
Eurylochus, meanwhile, had stepped behind a pillar. In the short
moment, while the folding doors opened and closed again, he caught a
glimpse of a very beautiful woman rising from the loom, and coming to
meet the poor weather-beaten wanderers, with a hospitable smile, and
her hand stretched out in welcome. There were four other young women,
who joined their hands and danced merrily forward, making gestures of
obeisance to the strangers. They were only less beautiful than the
lady who seemed to be their mistress. Yet Eurylochus fancied that one
of them had sea-green hair, and that the close-fitting bodice of a
second looked like the bark of a tree, and that both the others had
something odd in their aspect, although he could not quite determine
what it was, in the little while that he had to examine them.
The folding doors swung quickly back, and left him standing behind the
pillar, in the solitude of the outer hall. There Eurylochus waited
until he was quite weary, and listened eagerly to every sound, but
without hearing anything that could help him to guess what had become
of his friends. Footsteps, it is true, seemed to be passing and
repassing in other parts of the palace. Then there was a clatter of
silver dishes, or golden ones, which made him imagine a rich feast in
a splendid banqueting hall. But by and by he heard a tremendous
grunting and squealing, and then a sudden scampering, like that of
small, hard hoofs over a marble floor, while the voices of the
mistress and her four handmaidens were screaming all together, in
tones of anger and derision. Eurylochus could not conceive what had
happened, unless a drove of swine had broken into the palace,
attracted by the smell of the feast. Chancing to cast his eyes at the
fountain, he saw that it did not shift its shape as formerly, nor
looked either like a long-robed man, or a lion, a tiger, a wolf, or an
ass. It looked like nothing but a hog, which lay wallowing in the
marble basin, and filled it from brim to brim.
But we must leave the prudent Eurylochus waiting in the outer hall,
and follow his friends into the inner secrecy of the palace. As soon
as the beautiful woman saw them, she arose from the loom, as I have
told you, and came forward smiling, and stretching out her hand. She
took the hand of the foremost among them, and bade him and the whole
party welcome.
"You have been long expected, my good friends," said she. "I and my
maidens are well acquainted with you, although you do not appear to
recognize us. Look at this piece of tapestry, and judge if your faces
must not have been familiar to us."
So the voyagers examined the web of cloth which the beautiful woman
had been weaving in her loom; and, to their vast astonishment, they
saw their own figures perfectly represented in different colored
threads. It was a life-like picture of their recent adventures,
showing them in the cave of Polyphemus, and how they had put out his
one great moony eye; while in another part of the tapestry they were
untying the leathern bags, puffed out with contrary winds; and farther
on they beheld themselves scampering away from the gigantic king of
the Læstrygons, who had caught one of them by the leg. Lastly, there
they were, sitting on the desolate shore of this very island, hungry
and downcast, and looking ruefully at the bare bones of the stag which
they devoured yesterday. This was as far as the work had yet
proceeded; but when the beautiful woman should again sit down at her
loom, she would probably make a picture of what had since happened to
the strangers, and of what was now going to happen.
"You see," she said, "that I know all about your troubles; and you
cannot doubt that I desire to make you happy for as long a time as you
may remain with me. For this purpose, my honored guests, I have
ordered a banquet to be prepared. Fish, fowl, and flesh, roasted and
in luscious stews, and seasoned, I trust, to all your tastes, are
ready to be served up. If your appetites tell you it is dinner-time,
then come with me to the festal saloon."
At this kind invitation the hungry mariners were quite overjoyed; and
one of them, taking upon himself to be spokesman, assured their
hospitable hostess that any hour of the day was dinner-time with them,
whenever they could get flesh to put in the pot, and fire to boil it
with. So the beautiful woman led the way; and the four maidens (one of
them had sea-green hair, another a bodice of oak bark, a third
sprinkled a shower of water drops from her fingers' ends, and the
fourth had some other oddity, which I have forgotten), all these
followed behind, and hurried the guests along until they entered a
magnificent saloon. It was built in a perfect oval, and lighted from
a crystal dome above. Around the walls were ranged two-and-twenty
thrones, overhung by canopies of crimson and gold, and provided with
the softest of cushions, which were tasseled and fringed with gold
cord. Each of the strangers was invited to sit down; and there they
were, two-and-twenty storm-beaten mariners, in worn and tattered garb,
sitting on two-and-twenty cushioned and canopied thrones, so rich and
gorgeous that the proudest monarch had nothing more splendid in his
stateliest hall.
Then you might have seen the guests nodding, winking with one eye, and
leaning from one throne to another, to communicate their satisfaction
in hoarse whispers.
"Our good hostess has made kings of us all," said one. "Ha! do you
smell the feast? I'll engage it will be fit to set before
two-and-twenty kings."
But the beautiful woman now clapped her hands; and immediately there
entered a train of two-and-twenty serving-men, bringing dishes of the
richest food, all hot from the kitchen fire, and sending up such a
steam that it hung like a cloud below the crystal dome of the saloon.
An equal number of attendants brought great flagons of wine of various
kinds, some of which sparkled as it was poured out, and went bubbling
down the throat; while of other sorts, the purple liquor was so clear
that you could see the wrought figures at the bottom of the goblet.
While the servants supplied the two-and-twenty guests with food and
drink, the hostess and her four maidens went from one throne to
another, exhorting them to eat their fill, and to quaff wine
abundantly, and thus to recompense themselves at this one banquet for
the many days when they had gone without a dinner. But, whenever the
mariners were not looking at them (which was pretty often, as they
looked chiefly into the basins and platters), the beautiful woman and
her damsels turned aside and laughed. Even the servants, as they knelt
down to present the dishes, might be seen to grin and sneer while the
guests were helping themselves to the offered dainties.
And once in a while the strangers seemed to taste something that they
did not like.
"Here is an odd kind of a spice in this dish," said one. "I can't say
it quite suits my palate. Down it goes, however."
"Send a good draught of wine down your throat," said his comrade on
the next throne; "that is the stuff to make this sort of cookery
relish well. Though I must needs say, the wine has a queer taste, too.
But the more I drink of it the better I like the flavor."
Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat at
dinner a prodigiously long while. They forgot all about their homes,
and their wives and children, and all about Ulysses, and everything
else, except this banquet, at which they wanted to keep feasting
forever. But at length they began to give over, from mere incapacity
to hold any more.
"That last bit of fat is too much for me," said one.
"And I have not room for another morsel," said his next neighbor,
heaving a sigh. "What a pity! My appetite is as sharp as ever."
In short, they all left off eating, and leaned back on their thrones,
with such a stupid and helpless aspect as made them ridiculous to
behold. When their hostess saw this, she laughed aloud; so did her
four damsels; so did the two-and-twenty serving-men that bore the
dishes, and their two-and-twenty fellows that poured out the wine.
And the louder they all laughed, the more stupid and helpless did the
two-and-twenty gormandizers look. Then the beautiful woman took her
stand in the middle of the saloon, and stretching out a slender rod
(it had been all the while in her hand, although they never noticed it
till this moment), she turned it from one guest to another, until each
had felt it pointed at himself. Beautiful as her face was, and though
there was a smile on it, it looked just as wicked and mischievous as
the ugliest serpent that ever was seen; and fat-witted as the voyagers
had made themselves, they began to suspect that they had fallen into
the power of an evil-minded enchantress.
"Wretches," cried she, "you have abused a lady's hospitality; and in
this princely saloon your behavior has been suited to a hog-pen. You
are already swine in everything but the human form, which you
disgrace, and which I myself should be ashamed to keep a moment
longer, were you to share it with me. But it will require only the
slightest exercise of magic to make the exterior conform to the
hoggish disposition. Assume your proper shapes, gormandizers, and
begone to the sty!"
Uttering these last words, she waved her wand; and stamping her foot
imperiously, each of the guests was struck aghast at beholding,
instead of his comrades in human shape, one-and-twenty hogs sitting on
the same number of golden thrones. Each man (as he still supposed
himself to be) essayed to give a cry of surprise, but found that he
could merely grunt, and that, in a word, he was just such another
beast as his companions. It looked so intolerably absurd to see hogs
on cushioned thrones, that they made haste to wallow down upon all
fours, like other swine. They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but
forthwith emitted the most awful grunting and squealing that ever came
out of swinish throats. They would have wrung their hands in despair,
but, attempting to do so, grew all the more desperate for seeing
themselves squatted on their hams, and pawing the air with their
fore-trotters. Dear me! what pendulous ears they had! what little red
eyes, half buried in fat! and what long snouts, instead of Grecian
noses!
"Begone to your sty!" cried the enchantress, giving them some smart
strokes with her wand; and then she turned to the serving-men--"Drive
out these swine, and throw down some acorns for them to eat."
Meantime Eurylochus had waited, and waited, and waited in the entrance
hall of the palace, without being able to comprehend what had befallen
his friends. At last, when the swinish uproar sounded through the
palace, and when he saw the image of a hog in the marble basin, he
thought it best to hasten back to the vessel and inform the wise
Ulysses of these marvelous occurrences. So he ran as fast as he could
down the steps, and never stopped to draw breath till he reached the
shore.
"Why do you come alone?" asked King Ulysses, as soon as he saw him.
"Where are your two-and-twenty comrades?"
At these questions Eurylochus burst into tears.
"Alas!" cried he, "I greatly fear we shall never see one of their
faces again."
Then he told Ulysses all that had happened, as far as he knew it; and
added that he suspected the beautiful woman to be a vile enchantress,
and the marble palace, magnificent as it looked, to be only a dismal
cavern in reality. As for his companions, he could not imagine what
had become of them, unless they had been given to the swine to be
devoured alive. At this intelligence all the voyagers were greatly
affrighted. But Ulysses lost no time in girding on his sword, and
hanging his bow and quiver over his shoulders, and taking a spear in
his right hand. When his followers saw their wise leader making these
preparations, they inquired whither he was going, and earnestly
besought him not to leave them.
"You are our king," cried they; "and what is more, you are the wisest
man in the whole world, and nothing but your wisdom and courage can
get us out of this danger. If you desert us, and go to the enchanted
palace, you will suffer the same fate as our poor companions, and not
a soul of us will ever see our dear Ithaca again."
"As I am your king," answered Ulysses, "and wiser than any of you, it
is therefore the more my duty to see what has befallen our comrades,
and whether anything can yet be done to rescue them. Wait for me here
until to-morrow. If I do not then return, you must hoist sail and
endeavor to find your way to our native land. For my part, I am
answerable for the fate of these poor mariners, who have stood by my
side in battle, and been so often drenched to the skin, along with me,
by the same tempestuous surges. I will either bring them back with me
or perish."
Had his followers dared, they would have detained him by force. But
King Ulysses frowned sternly on them, and shook his spear, and bade
them stop him at their peril. Seeing him so determined they let him
go, and sat down on the sand, as disconsolate a set of people as could
be, waiting and praying for his return.
It happened to Ulysses, just as before, that, when he had gone a few
steps from the edge of the cliff, the purple bird came fluttering
towards him, crying, "Peep, peep, pe--weep!" and using all the art it
could to persuade him to go no farther.
"What mean you, little bird?" cried Ulysses. "You are arrayed like a
king in purple and gold, and wear a golden crown upon your head. Is it
because I too am a king, that you desire so earnestly to speak with
me? If you can talk in human language, say what you would have me do."
"Peep!" answered the purple bird, very dolorously. "Peep, peep,
pe--we--ep!"