and departing to our ship, reposed ourselves near unto the shore, and
in the morning put to sea, where we were taken with a violent storm,
which tossed us two days together, and on the third we fell among the
Colocynthopiratans. These are a wild kind of men, that issue out of
the islands adjoining, and prey upon passengers, and for their shipping
have mighty great gourds six cubits in length, which they make hollow
when they are ripe, and cleanse out all that is within them, and use
the rinds for ships, making their masts of reeds, and their sails of
the gourd leaves.
These set upon us with two ships furnished and fought with us, and
wounded many, casting at us instead of stones the seeds of those
gourds. The fight was continued with equal fortune until about noon, at
which time, behind the Colocynthopiratans, we espied the Caryonautans
coming on, who, as it appeared, were enemies to the other, for when
they saw them approach, they forsook us and turned about to fight
with them; and in the mean space we hoist sail and away, leaving
them together by the ears, and no doubt but the Caryonautans had the
better of the day, for they exceeded in number, having five ships well
furnished, and their vessels of greater strength, for they are made
of nutshells cloven in the midst and cleansed, of which every half is
fifteen fathom in length.
[Illustration]
When we were got out of sight we were careful for the curing of our
hurt men, and from that time forwards went no more unarmed, fearing
continually to be assaulted on the sudden: and good cause we had: for
before sun-setting some twenty men or thereabouts, which also were
pirates, made towards us, riding upon monstrous great dolphins, which
carried them surely: and when their riders gat upon their backs,
would neigh like horses. When they were come near us, they divided
themselves, some on the one side, and some on the other, and flung at
us with dried cuttle-fishes and the eyes of sea-crabs: but when we shot
at them again and hurt them, they would not abide it, but fled to the
island, the most of them wounded.
About midnight, the sea being calm, we fell before we were aware upon
a mighty great halcyon's nest, in compass no less than threescore
furlongs, in which the halcyon herself sailed, as she was hatching her
eggs, in quantity almost equalling the nest, for when she took her
wings, the blast of her feathers had like to have overturned our ship,
making a lamentable noise as she flew along.
As soon as it was day, we got upon it, and found it to be a nest,
fashioned like a great lighter, with trees plaited and wound one within
another, in which were five hundred eggs, every one bigger than a tun
of Chios measure, and so near their time of hatching that the young
chickens might be seen and began to cry. Then with an axe we hewed one
of the eggs in pieces, and cut out a young one that had no feathers,
which yet was bigger than twenty of our vultures.
When we had gone some two hundred furlongs from this nest, fearful
prodigies and strange tokens appeared unto us, for the carved goose,
that stood for an ornament on the stern of our ship, suddenly flushed
out with feathers and began to cry. Scintharus, our pilot, that was
a bald man, in an instant was covered with hair: and which was more
strange than all the rest, the mast of our ship began to bud out with
branches and to bear fruit at the top, both of figs and great clusters
of grapes, but not yet ripe. Upon the sight of this we had great cause
to be troubled in mind, and therefore besought the gods to avert from
us the evil that by these tokens was portended.
And we had not passed full out five hundred furlongs, but we came in
view of a mighty wood of pine-trees and cypress, which made us think
it had been land, when it was indeed a sea of infinite depth, planted
with trees that had no roots, but floated firm and upright, standing
upon the water. When we came to it and found how the case stood with
us, we knew not what to do with ourselves. To go forwards through the
trees was altogether impossible: they were so thick and grew so close
together: and to turn again with safety was as much unlikely.
[Illustration]
I therefore got me up to the top of the highest tree to discover,
if I could, what was beyond; and I found the breadth of the wood to
be fifty furlongs or thereabout, and then appeared another ocean to
receive us. Wherefore we thought it best to assay to lift up our ship
upon the leaves of the trees which were thick grown, and by that means
pass over, if it were possible, to the other ocean: and so we did: for
fastening a strong cable to our ship, we wound it about the tops of the
trees, and with much ado poised it up to the height, and placing it
upon the branches, spread our sails, and were carried as it were upon
the sea, dragging our ship after us by the help of the wind which set
it forwards. At which time a verse of the poet Antimachus came to my
remembrance, wherein he speaks of sailing over tops of trees.
When we had passed over the wood, and were come to the sea again, we
let down our ship in the same manner as we took it up. Then sailed we
forwards in a pure and clear stream, until we came to an exceeding
great gulf or trench in the sea, made by the division of the waters as
many times is upon land, where we see great clefts made in the ground
by earthquakes and other means. Whereupon we struck sail and our ship
stayed upon a sudden when it was at the pit's brim ready to tumble
in: and we stooping down to look into it, thought it could be no less
than a thousand furlongs deep, most fearful and monstrous to behold,
for the water stood as it were divided into two parts, but looking on
our right hand afar off, we perceived a bridge of water, which to our
seeming, did join the two seas together and crossed over from the one
to the other. Wherefore we laboured with oars to get unto it, and over
it we went and with much ado got to the further side beyond all our
expectation.
Then a calm sea received us, and in it we found an island, not very
great, but inhabited with unsociable people, for in it were dwelling
wild men named Bucephalians, that had horns on their heads like the
picture of Minotaurus, where we went ashore to look for fresh water and
victuals, for ours was all spent: and there we found water enough, but
nothing else appeared; only we heard a great bellowing and roaring a
little way off, which we thought to have been some herd of cattle, and
going forwards, fell upon those men, who espying us, chased us back
again, and took three of our company: the rest fled towards the sea.
Then we all armed ourselves, not meaning to leave our friends
unrevenged, and set upon the Bucephalians as they were dividing the
flesh of them that were slain, and put them all to flight, and pursued
after them, of whom we killed fifty, and two we took alive, and so
returned with our prisoners; but food we could find none.
Then the company were all earnest with me to kill those whom we had
taken; but I did not like so well of that, thinking it better to keep
them in bonds until ambassadors should come from the Bucephalians to
ransom them that were taken, and indeed they did: and I well understood
by the nodding of their heads, and their lamentable lowing, like
petitioners, what their business was.
So we agreed upon a ransom of sundry cheeses and dried fish and onions
and four deer with three legs apiece, two behind and one before. Upon
these conditions we delivered those whom we had taken, and tarrying
there but one day, departed.
Then the fishes began to show themselves in the sea, and the birds
flew over our heads, and all other tokens of our approach to land
appeared unto us. Within a while after we saw men travelling the seas,
and a new found manner of navigation, themselves supplying the office
both for ship and sailor, and I will tell you how. As they lie upon
their backs in the water and their privy members standing upright,
which are of a large size and fit for such a purpose, they fasten
thereto a sail, and holding their cords in their hands, when the wind
hath taken it, are carried up and down as please themselves.
After these followed others riding upon cork, for they yoke two
dolphins together, and drive them on (performing themselves the place
of a coachman), which draw the cork along after them. These never
offered us any violence, nor once shunned our sight; but passed along
in our company without fear, in a peaceable manner, wondering at the
greatness of our ship, and beholding it on every side.
At evening we arrived upon a small island, inhabited, as it seemed,
only by women, which could speak the Greek language; for they came unto
us, gave us their hands, and saluted us, all attired like wantons,
beautiful and young, wearing long mantles down to the foot: the island
was called Cabbalusa and the city Hydramardia. So the women received
us, and every one of them took aside one of us for herself, and made
him her guest. But I pausing a little upon it (for my heart misgave
me), looked narrowly round about, and saw the bones of many men, and
the skulls lying together in a corner; yet I thought not good to make
any stir, or to call my company about me, or to put on arms; but taking
the mallow into my hand, made my earnest prayers thereto that I might
escape out of those present perils.
[Illustration]
Within a while after, when the strange female came to wait upon me, I
perceived she had not the legs of a woman, but the hoofs of an ass.
Whereupon I drew my sword, and taking fast hold of her, bound her, and
examined her upon the point: and she, though unwillingly, confessed
that they were sea-women, called Onosceleans, and they fed upon
strangers that travelled that way. For, said she, when we have made
them drunk, we go to bed to them, and in their sleep, make a hand of
them.
I hearing this, left her bound in the place where she was, and went up
to the roof of the house, where I made an outcry, and called my company
to me, and when they were come together, acquainted them with all that
I had heard, and showed them the bones, and brought them into her that
was bound, who suddenly was turned into water, and could not be seen.
Notwithstanding, I thrust my sword into the water to see what would
come of it, and it was changed into blood.
[Illustration]
Then we made all the haste we could to our ship, and got us away,
and as soon as it was clear day, we had sight of the mainland, which
we judged to be the country opposite to our continent. Whereupon we
worshipped, and made our prayers, and took council what was now to be
done. Some thought it best only to go a-land and so return back again:
others thought it better to leave our ship there and march into the
mid-land to try what the inhabitants would do: but whilst we were upon
this consultation a violent storm fell upon us, which drave our ship
against the shore, and burst it all in pieces, and with much ado we all
swam to land with our arms, every man catching what he could lay hands
on.
These are all the occurrences I can acquaint you withal, till the time
of our landing, both in the sea, and in our course to the islands, and
in the air, and after that in the whale; and when we came out again
what betid unto us among the Heroes and among the dreams, and lastly
among the Bucephalians and the Onosceleans. What passed upon land the
next books shall deliver.
End of Project Gutenberg's Lucian's True History, by Lucian of Samosata