glass lying upon the top of a pit of no great depth, whereinto, if any
man descend, he shall hear everything that is spoken upon the earth: if
he but look into the glass, he shall see all cities and all nations as
well as if he were among them. There had I the sight of all my friends
and the whole country about: whether they saw me or not I cannot tell:
but if they believe it not to be so, let them take the pains to go
thither themselves and they shall find my words true. Then we took our
leaves of the king and such as were near him, and took shipping and
departed: at which time Endymion bestowed upon me two mantles made of
their glass, and five of brass, with a complete armour of those shells
of lupins, all which I left behind me in the whale: and sent with us
a thousand of his Hippogypians to conduct us five hundred furlongs on
our way. In our course we coasted many other countries, and lastly
arrived at the Morning Star now newly inhabited, where we landed and
took in fresh water: from thence we entered the Zodiac, passing by the
Sun, and, leaving it on our right hand, took our course near unto
the shore, but landed not in the country, though our company did much
desire it, for the wind would not give us leave: but we saw it was a
flourishing region, fat and well watered, abounding with all delights:
but the Nephelocentaurs espying us, who were mercenary soldiers to
Phaethon, made to our ship as fast as they could, and finding us to
be friends, said no more unto us, for our Hippogypians were departed
before. Then we made forwards all the next night and day, and about
evening-tide following we came to a city called Lychnopolis, still
holding on our course downwards. This city is seated in the air between
the Pleiades and the Hyades, somewhat lower than the Zodiac, and
arriving there, not a man was to be seen, but lights in great numbers
running to and fro, which were employed, some in the market place, and
some about the haven, of which many were little, and as a man may say,
but poor things; some again were great and mighty, exceeding glorious
and resplendent, and there were places of receipt for them all; every
one had his name as well as men; and we did hear them speak. These did
us no harm, but invited us to feast with them, yet we were so fearful,
that we durst neither eat nor sleep as long as we were there. Their
court of justice standeth in the midst of the city, where the governor
sitteth all the night long calling every one by name, and he that
answereth not is adjudged to die, as if he had forsaken his ranks.
Their death is to be quenched. We also standing amongst them saw what
was done, and heard what answers the lights made for themselves, and
the reasons they alleged for tarrying so long: there we also knew our
own light, and spake unto it, and questioned it of our affairs at
home, and how all did there, which related everything unto us. That
night we made our abode there, and on the next morrow returned to
our ship, and sailing near unto the clouds had a sight of the city
Nephelococcygia, which we beheld with great wonder, but entered not
into it, for the wind was against us. The king thereof was Coronus,
the son of Cottyphion: and I could not choose but think upon the poet
Aristophanes, how wise a man he was, and how true a reporter, and how
little cause there is to question his fidelity for what he hath written.
The third after, the ocean appeared plainly unto us, though we could
see no land but what was in the air, and those countries also seemed
to be fiery and of a glittering colour. The fourth day about noon,
the wind gently forbearing, settled us fair and leisurely into the
sea; and as soon as we found ourselves upon water, we were surprised
with incredible gladness, and our joy was unexpressible; we feasted
and made merry with such provision as we had; we cast ourselves into
the sea, and swam up and down for our disport, for it was a calm.
But oftentimes it falleth out that the change to the better is the
beginning of greater evils: for when we had made only two days' sail in
the water, as soon as the third day appeared, about sun-rising, upon a
sudden we saw many monstrous fishes and whales: but one above the rest,
containing in greatness fifteen hundred furlongs, which came gaping
upon us and troubled the sea round about him, so that he was compassed
on every side with froth and foam, showing his teeth afar off, which
were longer than any beech trees are with us, all as sharp as needles,
and as white as ivory: then we took, as we thought, our last leaves
one of another, and embracing together, expected our ending day. The
monster was presently with us, and swallowed us up ship and all; but by
chance he caught us not between his chops, for the ship slipped through
the void passages down into his entrails. When we were thus got within
him we continued a good while in darkness, and could see nothing till
he began to gape, and then we perceived it to be a monstrous whale of
a huge breadth and height, big enough to contain a city that would
hold ten thousand men: and within we found small fishes and many other
creatures chopped in pieces, and the masts of ships and anchors and
bones of men and luggage. In the midst of him was earth and hills,
which were raised, as I conjectured, by the settling of the mud which
came down his throat, for woods grew upon them and trees of all sorts
and all manner of herbs, and it looked as if it had been husbanded.
The compass of the land was two hundred and forty furlongs: there were
also to be seen all kind of sea fowl, as gulls, halcyons and others
that had made their nests upon the trees. Then we fell to weeping
abundantly, but at the last I roused up my company, and propped up our
ship and struck fire. Then we made ready supper of such as we had, for
abundance of all sort of fish lay ready by us, and we had yet water
enough left which we brought out of the Morning Star.
[Illustration]
The next morrow we rose to watch when the whale should gape: and then
looking out, we could sometimes see mountains, sometimes only the
skies, and many times islands, for we found that the fish carried
himself with great swiftness to every part of the sea. When we grew
weary of this, I took seven of my company, and went into the wood to
see what I could find there, and we had not gone above five furlongs
but we light upon a temple erected to Neptune, as by the title
appeared, and not far off we espied many sepulchres and pillars placed
upon them, with a fountain of clear water close unto it: we also heard
the barking of a dog, and saw smoke rise afar off, so that we judged
there was some dwelling thereabout. Wherefore making the more haste,
we lighted upon an old man and a youth, who were very busy in making a
garden and in conveying water by a channel from the fountain into it:
whereupon we were surprised both with joy and fear: and they also were
brought into the same taking, and for a long time remained mute. But
after some pause, the old man said, What are ye, you strangers? any of
the sea spirits? or miserable men like unto us? for we that are men by
nature, born and bred in the earth, are now sea-dwellers, and swim up
and down within the Continent of this whale, and know not certainly
what to think of ourselves: we are like to men that be dead, and yet
believe ourselves to be alive. Whereunto I answered, For our parts,
father, we are men also, newly come hither, and swallowed up ship and
all but yesterday: and now come purposely within this wood which is
so large and thick: some good angel, I think, did guide us hither to
have the sight of you, and to make us know that we are not the only
men confined within this monster: tell us therefore your fortunes, we
beseech you, what you are, and how you came into this place. But he
answered, You shall not hear a word from me, nor ask any more questions
until you have taken part of such viands as we are able to afford you.
So he took us and brought us into his house, which was sufficient to
serve his turn: his pallets were prepared, and all things else made
ready. Then he set before us herbs and nuts and fish, and filled out of
his own wine unto us: and when we were sufficiently satisfied, he then
demanded of us what fortunes we had endured, and I related all things
to him in order that had betide unto us, the tempest, the passages in
the island, our navigation in the air, our war, and all the rest, even
till our diving into the whale. Whereat he wondered exceedingly, and
began to deliver also what had befallen to him, and said, By lineage,
O ye strangers, I am of the isle Cyprus, and travelling from mine own
country as a merchant, with this my son you see here, and many other
friends with me, made a voyage for Italy in a great ship full fraught
with merchandise, which perhaps you have seen broken in pieces in the
mouth of the whale. We sailed with fair weather till we were as far
as Sicily, but there we were overtaken with such a boisterous storm
that the third day we were driven into the ocean, where it was our
fortune to meet with this whale which swallowed us all up, and only we
two escaped with our lives; all the rest perished, whom we have here
buried and built a temple to Neptune. Ever since we have continued this
course of life, planting herbs and feeding upon fish and nuts: here is
wood enough, you see, and plenty of vines which yield most delicate
wine: we have also a well of excellent cool water, which it may be you
have seen: we make our beds of the leaves of trees, and burn as much
wood as we will: we chase after the birds that fly about us, and go
out upon the gills of the monster to catch after live fishes: here we
bathe ourselves when we are disposed, for we have a lake of salt water
not far off, about some twenty furlongs in compass, full of sundry
sorts of fish, in which we swim and sail upon it in a little boat of
mine own making. This is the seven-and-twentieth year of our drowning,
and with all this we might be well enough contented if our neighbours
and borderers about us were not perverse and troublesome, altogether
insociable and of stern condition. Is it so, indeed, said I, that there
should be any within the whale but yourselves? Many, said he, and such
as are unreconcilable towards strangers, and of monstrous and deformed
proportions. The western countries and the tail-part of the wood are
inhabited by the Tarychanians that look like eels, with faces like
a lobster: these are warlike, fierce, and feed upon raw flesh: they
that dwell towards the right side are called Tritonomendetans, which
have their upper parts like unto men, their lower parts like cats,
and are less offensive than the rest. On the left side inhabit the
Carcinochirians and the Thinnocephalians, which are in league one with
another: the middle region is possessed by the Paguridians, and the
Psettopodians, a warlike nation and swift of foot: eastwards towards
the mouth is for the most part desert, as overwashed by the sea: yet am
I fain to take that for my dwelling, paying yearly to the Psettopodians
in way of tribute five hundred oysters.
Of so many nations doth this country consist. We must therefore devise
among ourselves either how to be able to fight with them, or how to
live among them. What number may they all amount unto? said I. More
than a thousand, said he. And what armour have they? None at all, said
he, but the bones of fishes. Then were it our best course, said I, to
encounter them, being provided as we are, and they without weapons,
for if we prove too hard for them we shall afterward live out of fear.
This we concluded upon, and went to our ship to furnish ourselves with
arms. The occasion of war we gave by non-payment of tribute, which
then was due, for they sent their messengers to demand it, to whom he
gave a harsh and scornful answer, and sent them packing with their
arrant. But the Psettopodians and Paguridians, taking it ill at the
hands of Scintharus, for so was the man named, came against us with
great tumult: and we, suspecting what they would do, stood upon our
guard to wait for them, and laid five-and-twenty of our men in ambush,
commanding them as soon as the enemy was passed by to set upon them,
who did so, and arose out of their ambush, and fell upon the rear.
We also being five-and-twenty in number (for Scintharus and his son
were marshalled among us) advanced to meet with them, and encountered
them with great courage and strength: but in the end we put them to
flight and pursued them to their very dens. Of the enemies were slain
an hundred threescore and ten, and but one of us besides Trigles, our
pilot, who was thrust through the back with a fish's rib. All that day
following and the night after we lodged in our trenches, and set on end
a dry backbone of a dolphin instead of a trophy.
The next morrow the rest of the country people, perceiving what had
happened, came to assault us. The Tarychanians were ranged in the
right wing, with Pelamus their captain: the Thinnocephalians were
placed in the left wing: the Carcinochirians made up the main battle:
for the Tritonomendetans stirred not, neither would they join with
either part. About the temple of Neptune we met with them, and joined
fight with a great cry, which was answered with an echo out of the
whale as if it had been out of a cave: but we soon put them to flight,
being naked people, and chased them into the wood, making ourselves
masters of the country. Soon after they sent ambassadors to us to crave
the bodies of the dead and to treat upon conditions of peace; but we
had no purpose to hold friendship with them, but set upon them the
next day and put them all to the sword except the Tritonomendetans,
who, seeing how it fared with the rest of their fellows, fled away
through the gills of the fish, and cast themselves into the sea. Then
we travelled all the country over, which now was desert, and dwelt
there afterwards without fear of enemies, spending the time in exercise
of the body and in hunting, in planting vineyards and gathering fruit
of the trees, like such men as live delicately and have the world at
will, in a spacious and unavoidable prison. This kind of life led we
for a year and eight months, but when the fifth day of the ninth month
was come, about the time of the second opening of his mouth (for so
the whale did once every hour, whereby we conjectured how the hours
went away), I say about the second opening, upon a sudden we heard
a great cry and a mighty noise like the calls of mariners and the
stirring of oars, which troubled us not a little. Wherefore we crept
up to the very mouth of the fish, and standing within his teeth, saw
the strangest sight that ever eye beheld--men of monstrous greatness,
half a furlong in stature, sailing upon mighty great islands as if they
were upon shipboard. I know you will think this smells like a lie,
but yet you shall have it. The islands were of a good length indeed,
but not very high, containing about an hundred furlongs in compass;
every one of these carried of those kind of men eight-and-twenty, of
which some sat on either side of the island and rowed in their course
with great cypress trees, branches, leaves and all, instead of oars.
On the stern or hinder part, as I take it, stood the governor, upon
a high hill, with a brazen rudder of a furlong in length in his
hand: on the fore-part stood forty such fellows as those, armed for
the fight, resembling men in all points but in their hair, which was
all fire and burnt clearly, so that they needed no helmets. Instead
of sails the wood growing in the island did serve their turns, for
the wind blowing against it drave forward the island like a ship,
and carried it which way the governor would have it, for they had
pilots to direct them, and were as nimble to be stirred with oars as
any long-boat. At the first we had the sight but of two or three of
them: afterwards appeared no less than six hundred, which, dividing
themselves in two parts, prepared for encounter, in which many of
them by meeting with their barks together were broken in pieces, many
were turned over and drowned: they that closed, fought lustily and
would not easily be parted, for the soldiers in the front showed a
great deal of valour, entering one upon another, and killed all they
could, for none were taken prisoners. Instead of iron grapples they had
mighty great polypodes fast tied, which they cast at the other, and
if they once laid hold on the wood they made the isle sure enough for
stirring. They darted and wounded one another with oysters that would
fill a wain, and sponges as big as an acre. The leader on the one side
was Æolocentaurus, and of the other Thalassopotes. The quarrel, as it
seems, grew about taking a booty: for they said that Thalassopotes
drave away many flocks of dolphins that belonged to Æolocentaurus, as
we heard by their clamours one to another, and calling upon the names
of their kings: but Æolocentaurus had the better of the day and sunk
one hundred and fifty of the enemy's islands, and three they took with
the men and all. The rest withdrew themselves and fled, whom the other
pursued, but not far, because it grew towards evening, but returned to
those that were wrecked and broken, which they also recovered for the
most part, and took their own away with them: for on their part there
were no less than fourscore islands drowned. Then they erected a trophy
for a monument of this island fight, and fastened one of the enemy's
islands with a stake upon the head of the whale. That night they lodged
close by the beast, casting their cables about him, and anchored near
unto him: their anchors are huge and great, made of glass, but of a
wonderful strength. The morrow after, when they had sacrificed upon
the top of the whale, and there buried their dead, they sailed away,
with great triumph and songs of victory. And this was the manner of the
islands' fight.
LUCIAN
HIS TRUE HISTORY.
THE SECOND BOOK.
Upon this we began to be weary of our abode in the whale, and our
tarriance there did much trouble us. We therefore set all our wits
a-work to find out some means or other to clear us from our captivity.
First, we thought it would do well to dig a hole through his right
side and make our escape that way forth, which we began to labour at
lustily; but after we had pierced him five furlongs deep and found it
was to no purpose, we gave it over. Then we devised to set the wood
on fire, for that would certainly kill him without all question, and
being once dead, our issue would be easy enough. This we also put in
practice, and began our project at the tail end, which burnt seven days
and as many nights before he had any feeling of our fireworks: upon
the eighth and ninth days we perceived he began to grow sickly: for he
gaped more dully than he was wont to do, and sooner closed his mouth
again: the tenth and eleventh he was thoroughly mortified and began to
stink: upon the twelfth day we bethought ourselves, though almost too
late, that unless we underpropped his chops when he gaped next to keep
them from closing, we should be in danger of perpetual imprisonment
within his dead carcase and there miserably perish.
[Illustration]
We therefore pitched long beams of timber upright within his mouth
to keep it from shutting, and then made our ship in a readiness, and
provided ourselves with store of fresh water, and all other things
necessary for our use, Scintharus taking upon him to be our pilot, and
the next morrow the whale died. Then we hauled our ship through the
void passages, and fastening cables about his teeth, by little and
little settled it into the sea, and mounting the back of the whale,
sacrificed to Neptune, and for three days together took up our lodging
hard by the trophy, for we were becalmed. The fourth day we put to sea,
and met with many dead corpses that perished in the late sea-fight,
which our ship hit against, whose bodies we took measure of with great
admiration, and sailed for a few days in very temperate weather. But
after that the north wind blew so bitterly that a great frost ensued,
wherewith the whole sea was all frozen up, not only superficially upon
the upper part, but in depth also the depth of four hundred fathoms,
so that we were fain to forsake our ship and run upon the ice. The
wind sitting long in this corner, and we not able to endure it, put
this device in practice, which was the invention of Scintharus:--with
mattocks and other instruments we made a mighty cave in the water,
wherein we sheltered ourselves forty days together: in it we kindled
fire, and fed upon fish, of which we found great plenty in our digging.
At the last, our provision falling short, we returned to our frozen
ship, which we set upright, and spreading her sails, went forward as
well as if we had been upon water, leisurely and gently sliding upon
the ice; but on the fifth day the weather grew warm, and the frost
brake, and all was turned to water again. We had not sailed three
hundred furlongs forwards but we came to a little island that was
desert, where we only took in fresh water (which now began to fail
us), and with our shot killed two wild bulls, and so departed. These
bulls have their horns growing not upon their heads but under their
eyes, as Momus thought it better. Then we entered into a sea, not of
water but of milk, in which appeared a white island full of vines. This
island was only a great cheese well pressed (as we afterwards found
when we fed upon it), about some five-and-twenty furlongs in bigness:
the vines were full of clusters of grapes, out of which we could crush
no wine, but only milk: in the midst of the island there was a temple
built dedicated to Galatea, one of the daughters of Nereus, as by the
inscription appeared. As long as we remained there the soil yielded
us food and victuals, and our drink was the milk that came out of
the grapes: in these, as they said, reigneth Tyro, the daughter of
Salmoneus, who, after her departure, received this guerdon at the hands
of Neptune.
In this island we rested ourselves five days, and on the sixth put
to sea again, a gentle gale attending us, and the seas all still and
quiet. The eighth day, as we sailed onward, not in milk any longer, but
in salt and azure water, we saw many men running upon the sea, like
unto us every way forth, both in shape and stature, but only for their
feet, which were of cork, whereupon, I suppose, they had the name of
Phellopodes.
We marvelled much when we saw they did not sink, but keep above water,
and travel upon it so boldly. These came unto us, and saluted us in
the Grecian language, and said they were bound towards Phello, their
own country, and for a while ran along by us, but at last turned their
own way and left us, wishing us a happy and prosperous voyage. Within
a while after many islands appeared, and near unto them, upon our
left hand, stood Phello, the place whereunto they were travelling,
which was a city seated upon a mighty great and round cork. Further
off, and more towards the right hand, we saw five other islands,
large and mountainous, in which much fire was burning; but directly
before us was a spacious flat island, distant from us not above five
hundred furlongs: and approaching somewhat near unto it, a wonderful
fragrant air breathed upon us, of a most sweet and delicate smell,
such as Herodotus, the story-writer, saith ariseth out of Arabia the
happy, consisting of a mixture of roses, daffodils, gillyflowers,
lilies, violets, myrtles, bays, and blossoms of vines: such a dainty
odoriferous savour was conveyed unto us.
Being delighted with this smell, and hoping for better fortunes after
our long labours, we got within a little of the isle, in which we found
many havens on every side, not subject to overflowing, and yet of great
capacity, and rivers of clear water emptying themselves easily into
the sea, with meadows and herbs and musical birds, some singing upon
the shore, and many upon the branches of trees, a still and gentle air
compassing the whole country. When pleasant blasts gently stirred
the woods the motion of the branches made a continual delightsome
melody, like the sound of wind instruments in a solitary place: a
kind of clamour also was heard mixed with it, yet not tumultuous nor
offensive, but like the noise of a banquet, when some do play on wind
instruments, some commend the music, and some with their hands applaud
the pipe, or the harp. All which yielded us so great content that we
boldly entered the haven, made fast our ship and landed, leaving in her
only Scintharus and two more of our companions behind us. Passing along
through a sweet meadow we met with the guards that used to sail about
the island, who took us and bound us with garlands of roses (which are
the strictest bands they have), to be carried to their governor: from
them we heard, as we were upon the way, that it was the island of those
that are called blessed, and that Rhadamanthus was governor there, to
whom we were brought and placed the fourth in order of them that were
to be judged.
The first trial was about Ajax, the son of Telamon, whether he were
a meet man to be admitted into the society of the Heroes or not: the
objections against him were his madness and the killing of himself: and
after long pleading to and fro, Rhadamanthus gave this sentence, that
for the present he should be put to Hippocrates, the physician of Cos,
to be purged with helleborus, and upon the recovery of his wits to have
admittance.
The second was a controversy of love, Theseus and Menelaus contending
which had the better right to Helen; but Rhadamanthus gave
judgment on Menelaus' side, in respect of the manifold labours and
perils he had incurred for that marriage' sake, whereas Theseus had
wives enough beside to live withal--as the Amazon, and the daughters of
Minos. The third was a question of precedency between Alexander, the
son of Philip, and Hannibal, the Carthaginian, in which Alexander was
preferred, and his throne placed next to the elder Cyrus the Persian.