wood. Every little while they caught new glimpses of the marble palace,
which looked more and more beautiful the nearer they approached it.
They soon entered a broad pathway, which seemed to be very neatly
kept, and which went winding along, with streaks of sunshine falling
across it, and specks of light quivering among the deepest shadows that
fell from the lofty trees. It was bordered, too, with a great many
sweet-smelling flowers, such as the mariners had never seen before. So
rich and beautiful they were, that, if the shrubs grew wild here, and
were native in the soil, then this island was surely the flower garden
of the whole earth; or, if transplanted from some other clime, it must
have been from the Happy Islands that lay towards the golden sunset.
"There has been a great deal of pains foolishly wasted on these
flowers," observed one of the company; and I tell you what he said,
that you may keep in mind what gormandizers they were. "For my part,
if I were the owner of the palace, I would bid my gardener cultivate
nothing but savory pot herbs to make a stuffing for roast meat, or to
flavor a stew with."
"Well said!" cried the others. "But I'll warrant you there's a kitchen
garden in the rear of the palace."
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 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 the twang of the wine cask in it," said one, smacking his lips.
"Make haste!" cried his fellews; "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 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 half
way 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 splash. 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. It was either magic or some
very curious machinery that caused the gushing waterspout to assume
all these forms. 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 vessels 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, home-like 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.
[Illustration: THE VOYAGERS EXAMINED THE WEB OF CLOTH]
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 lifelike 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 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 tasselled 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."
"I hope," said another, "it will be, mainly, good substantial joints,
surloins, spareribs, and hinder quarters, without too many kickshaws.
If I thought the good lady would not take it amiss, I should call for a
fat slice of fried bacon to begin with."
Ah, the gluttons and gormandizers! You see how it was with them. In
the loftiest seats of dignity, on royal thrones, they could think of
nothing but their greedy appetite, which was the portion of their
nature that they shared with wolves and swine; so that they resembled
those vilest of animals far more than they did kings--if, indeed, kings
were what they ought to be.
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; and it would really have made you
ashamed to see how they swilled down the liquor and gobbled up the
food. They sat on golden thrones, to be sure; but they behaved like
pigs in a sty; and, if they had their wits about them, they might have
guessed that this was the opinion of their beautiful hostess and her
maidens. It brings a blush into my face to reckon up, in my own mind,
what mountains of meat and pudding, and what gallons of wine, these two
and twenty guzzlers and gormandizers ate and drank. 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 hogpen. 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 slighest 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!
But brutes as they certainly were, they yet had enough of human nature
in them to be shocked at their own hideousness; and, still intending to
groan, they uttered a viler grunt and squeal than before. So harsh and
ear-piercing it was, that you would have fancied a butcher was sticking
his knife into each of their throats, or, at the very least, that
somebody was pulling every hog by his funny little twist of a tail.
"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."
The door of the saloon being flung open, the drove of hogs ran in
all directions save the right one, in accordance with their hoggish
perversity but were finally driven into the back yard of the palace.
It was a sight to bring tears into one's eyes, (and I hope none of you
will be cruel enough to laugh at it,) to see the poor creatures go
snuffing along, picking up here a cabbage leaf and there a turnip top,
and rooting their noses in the earth for whatever they could find. In
their sty, moreover, they behaved more piggishly than the pigs that had
been born so; for they bit and snorted at one another, put their feet
in the trough, and gobbled up their victuals in a ridiculous hurry;
and, when there was nothing more to be had, they made a great pile of
themselves among some unclean straw, and fell fast asleep. If they had
any human reason left, it was just enough to keep them wondering when
they should be slaughtered, and what quality of bacon they should make.
Meantime, as I told you before, 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 resounded 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 marvellous 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 that 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!"