Les aventures du Capitaine Magon. English

by David-Léon Cahun

  CHAPTER IX.

  THE LAND OF OXEN.

  On the third morning after the battle we sighted the mountains ofItaly,[32] and having entered the gulf,[33] along the north of whichextends the Iapygian Peninsula, we soon came to the mouth of a riverthat meandered along a fine plain, in which the broad pastures werediversified by groves of pines and oleanders. Inland, about a hundredstadia from the shore, rose a range of grey mountains, partiallywooded, and crowned by a ridge of ragged peaks. The anchorage wastolerably good, and as we required fresh water and provender for thecattle, I determined to lay to at once. I had all the animals sent onshore. This was a work of some difficulty; Bichri with a few armedmen was put in charge of them, and he was to employ the prisonersto drive them where they could find proper pasturage; my intentionin doing this was that the animals should follow the ships alongthe coast as far as the Sicilian Straits, where, unless I succeededmeanwhile in disposing of them, they should be re-embarked.

  [32] Italia, from ??????, _vitulus_.

  [33] South of the Adriatic.

  "Not much chance of selling them here," said Himilco; "we are inVitalia, the land of oxen. If we could have brought them some goatsnow, like those we let the Ionians have, we might have found amarket. Of cattle such as these they have more than enough already."

  "Probably so," I answered; "but first of all we must find someinhabited spot amidst all this desolation; we must try and meetwith some of these Italians or Vitalians, whichever they are called.There must be some Iapygians here too in the south, as well as in thenorth. Do you know the Iapygian dialect?"

 

  Himilco said that, although he was not acquainted with that dialect,he had some knowledge of the language of the Vitalians, as well asof that which was spoken by the Opsci, the Marsians, the Volscians,the Samnites, the Umbrians, the Sabellians of the eastern coast, andthe Latins of the western. He mentioned also that Gisgo was tolerablyfamiliar with the tongue of the Rasennæ, away to the north-west.

  The spokesman of my seven Phocian prisoners now approached mesomewhat timidly, as if he had something to ask. His name wasAminocles. He began by addressing me:

  "King of the Phœnicians!"

  I stopped him and told him that my proper appellation was not kingbut captain.

  "Captain of the Phœnicians," he said; "will you please to tell mewhat 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 ofVitalians; south and north-east dwell the Iapygians; far away to thenorth are the Rasennæ, who build great cities, and have a king in thefertile 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 recordthat long ages back, before we built Dodona, nay, before we settledby the Achelous, while we still were dwelling in the cold regionsbeyond 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 alland made way for us. If your Opsci are the same as those Opici, Isuppose I ought to have heard of them before."

  "It is of no use perplexing the man," I said; "you see he does notunderstand you."

  "Wait a bit," Himilco remonstrated; "perhaps I shall succeed evenyet. Tell me, Aminocles, did you ever hear of Tyrsenians?"

  "No," said the Phocian.

  "Strange!" muttered Himilco to himself. "Again and again I haveheard the Hellenes speak of Vitalia, and call the natives Tyrseniansor Tyrrhenians; I must try again. Do you know the Siculians, theCyclopes, the Lœstrigonians?" he asked aloud.

  The man's countenance changed in an instant.

  "What! do you mean"--he exclaimed, in a voice agitated withalarm--"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 theisland of the Cyclopes, the Siculians, and all the rest of them. Weare going to pay them a visit, when we have steered safely betweenScylla 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 havecome to this land of monsters. Oh!"

  We all laughed. The ridiculousness of the fellow's terror wasirresistible.

  "Silence, simpleton!" I said; "the Lœstrigonians will not hurtyou; 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 watchto a party of about fifty men, who were advancing across the plain.Their attitude was far from confident, and they halted on the edgeof a wood, apparently in indecision whether they would come on orretreat. At length I took upon myself to encourage them to comeforward, and, according to my custom, went alone towards them, makingthem every sign of good-will. Presently two of them advanced to meetme. They were stout, thick-set men, square-shouldered, and of middleheight; they had light complexions, thick beards, and frizzly hair,that overhung low brows and wide faces. Their legs and arms werequite bare, and their heads uncovered, but they wore a kind of coarsewoollen kitonet, with another loose garment thrown crosswise over oneshoulder. They were all well armed, having two short copper-headedlances and a poignard; most of them carried knives or swords in theirgirdles, 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 thatwe were merchants who had come from distant lands, and that we wantedto open a trade with them.

  "But are you not Rasennæ? and is it not your design to rob us ourcattle?"

  "Nothing of the sort," we answered; "we are Phœnicians from theeast. 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 ourboundary."

  And, driving his lance firmly into the ground midway between them, hecontinued:

  "If you advance one step beyond this lance, I take it up, and wedeclare ourselves your foes."

  "IF YOU ADVANCE ONE STEP BEYOND THIS LANCE." _To face page 152._]

  Himilco repeated his assurance that we had no wish to do them theslightest injury, and they came up close to where we were. The leadertold us that they were Sabelline Samnites, and that they wanted toknow what payment we were going to make them for the pasturage of ourcattle. I made Himilco satisfy them that they should have a properremuneration.

  It was now my turn to erect a barrier. This I did by driving stakesinto the earth, and stretching a cord across, beyond which I madethe Samnites understand that I should not permit them to pass. Theyraised no objection to my measure of precaution, but crowded up toinspect our goods, their curiosity meanwhile extending to our ships,ourselves, and our costume. They were rougher in manners than theHellenes, and more suspicious, and I had some trouble in inducingthem to negotiate with us at all; but after a time I succeeded insecuring their confidence to a certain degree, and they informed methat they were not an agricultural people, and had no cereals norvegetables to bring us, but could supply us with any number of sheepand oxen. They subsequently brought several half-wild pigs, whichparticularly attracted the attention of Chamai and Bichri, neither ofwhom had seen animals of the kind before. Not understanding the artof making bread, the Samnites ordinarily eat a kind of pulp called"masa;" but, as they had on previous visits of other Phœnicianstasted some loaves, they were now very anxious to be shown how tomake them; they made a number of inquiries likewise about our wine,bu
t for this they did not seem to care to the same extent as theHellenes.

  Next morning they came to us again in considerable numbers. Ihad observed that during the night they had lighted a good manybeacon-fires over the land, and naturally conjectured that they weresignalling for a gathering of their countrymen, and I accordinglydoubled my ordinary guard. I soon found, however, that there was nocause for alarm, and that they had no hostile intentions; on thecontrary, they were quite content to follow my injunctions that theyshould not approach our boundary line in groups of more than fifty;they awaited their turn with the utmost patience, and altogether werefar less noisy and demonstrative than we had found the Dorians.

  Amongst other things they brought a great quantity of coral, whichafter rough weather is washed up on their coasts, but which theyalso procure by diving from frail rafts of their own construction;for although they are very indifferent navigators, they are for themost part excellent swimmers. The most expert coral-divers are theIapygians, those who dwell amongst the Samnites and the Bretians,as well as the natives of Iapygia proper. Some few of them were tobe noticed amongst our Samnite visitors; they were generally talland wore no beards; they had round heads and brown skins, being inmany respects very like the Cydonians: in their manners they weremore polished and in their conversation more communicative thanthe other Italians. They seemed to me to bear a marked resemblanceto the Siculians; and I cannot help thinking that the Iapygians,the Siculians, the Cydonians, and the natives discovered by ourforefathers in Malta, are the aborigines of their respectivecountries. Afterwards, from the coast of Asia came the Leleges andthe 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 fromthe confines of Thrace. Of the origin of the Rasennæ I am perfectlyignorant: all I know is that Phœnicians who have visited themountains whence the rock-crystal is obtained, and which lie north ofthe Eridanus, at the head of the Iapygian Gulf, have reported thatthey have fallen in with a people who call themselves Rhœtians,and who speak a language in many respects identical with that spokenby the Rasennæ.

  Two days were spent in bartering my cumbersome booty for coral,which could be compactly stored away. As the captured boats wereemptied, I had all but two of them broken up. I reserved only theplanking, which was sure to be useful, and the masts, which mightbe of service if we should require extra spars. After the spoil hadbeen all exchanged away, I commenced paying for what I purchasedwith glass-beads, lance-heads, and sword-blades; the last of thesearticles were so eagerly coveted, that for four blades, worth about ashekel apiece, I obtained at least four hundred shekels' worth of thefinest coral. When I expressed my surprise at the quantity of coralin their possession, they explained that it was the accumulation ofa very long time, adding that they had intended disposing of it atone of the emporiums which the Phœnicians had established on thewestern coast, but that our arrival had saved them the trouble of thejourney. They told me that they should have been glad if I couldsupply them with goats, and stated that those which had been broughtover 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 scatteredhamlets, consisting generally of a few thatched huts built ofboughs of trees cemented with mud. They have very little notion ofagriculture, and the Latins of the west coast (especially those ofthe valley of the Tiber) are far superior husbandmen; the Latins,however, have a city named Alba, occupying a secure position betweena mountain and a lake. Along the coast I know only of a singlesea-port, and that belongs to the Rasennæ, and is named Populonia.These Rasennæ are no contemptible sailors; that they were bold andunscrupulous pirates, I had long known by hearsay, but here on theSamnite coast I was destined to have a confirmation of the fact frommy own experience.

  Having completed all the business that was practicable, I waspreparing to renew our voyage, when one of the Samnites came runningup to his associates, and shouted something which appeared to throwthem into a state of great excitement.

  "What ails the fellows?" said Himilco; "they seem going mad. Is thecock-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! Awayto the mountains!"

  Without losing a minute, I made Jonah sound an alarm and summon ourmen to their ships. Hannibal donned his helmet and marshalled hismen, including the seven Phocians; the overlooker of the rowers,scourge in hand, hurried the oarsmen to their benches, and in a shorttime we were three stadia from the shore and ready for action.Chamai congratulated himself that although his right arm was disabledhe 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 strunghis bow.

  I told him that they were Tyrrhenians, or Rasennæ, from thenorth-west of Italy, who traded a little, but did a good deal morein the way of privateering along the coast; and that, although I wasnot aware of their having ever hitherto come into collision withPhœnicians, I had very little doubt they carried freight enough tomake it worth our while to risk an engagement with them.

  "Yes, they are new to me," said Hannibal; "and perhaps we can givethem some new lessons in the art of fighting; they may like a tasteof 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 closeas possible to the shore until she reached the extremity of theheadland, whence she could command a view of the whole line of coast;she returned with the intelligence that there were five ships, whichseemed of a long build, advancing leisurely towards us by makingshort tacks to catch the wind, and that in about half an hour theywould be in sight.

  Whilst I was pondering in my mind what line of action I shouldfollow, my eye fell upon the two boats of the Hellenes which had beenspared in the general demolition, and it occurred to me that I couldmake 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 reportof the _Cabiros_.

  "Tell me, Gisgo," I said, "how much water do those Tyrrhenianprivateers draw? Is it six cubits?"

  "Aye, six at the very least; they look low upon the water, but theysink very deep; it is their excessive weight that keeps them fromlurching."

  "Very well; now go to those two boats, scuttle them, and sink themthere, right in front of my ship. _There!_" I said, pointing with myhand.

  Himilco and Gisgo chuckled again with delight as they went to do asthey were ordered, and in the course of twenty minutes the boats wereboth sunk, and formed a regular stockade about three cubits below thesurface 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 theheadland, as though she had sustained some serious injury. I thenmade the _Dagon_ sheer off about two stadia out to sea, orderingher to make her way back to the _Ashtoreth_ by short tacks, as ifshe were coming to her assistance. Meanwhile I gave my ship theappearance of being a disabled merchantman; I lowered my sail, mademy rowers struggle with their oars without propelling the vessel, andtold all my soldiers to slip their shields, and to lie down flat uponthe deck so as not to be seen.

  "What's up now, Captain?" said Chamai raising his head, with a merrygrin.

  I told him that I was giving a sprat to catch a mackerel; and that ifhe would have patience I hoped he would be satisfied with the haul.

  It was a very short time now before the Rasennæ caught sight ofus. Immediately one of the five ships bore down directly upon the_Cabiros_; two of them starte
d 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 signof resistance.

  When they had come within a stadium of me I had ample opportunityof examining the details of their boats and equipments. Althoughthe boats were long, they were very ill-constructed; they had onlya single deck, and were each manned by thirty rowers; the stern wassomewhat raised, but the deck was almost level with the sea; on theprow was painted a pair of huge red and white eyes which seemed tostare fixedly at the waves. The men on board were very tall; they hadlarge heads, wide flat faces, reddish complexions and thin beards;although their limbs were muscular and well-developed, their gaitwas very awkward. They were armed with ponderous lances, hatchets,bucklers, and round helmets which had no crests; whilst their legswere protected either by sandals or by pointed gaiters. Most ofthem wore tunics of some dark colour, which, though longer than ourkitonets, were shorter than those worn by the Syrians. On theirarms and throats was a profusion of bracelets and necklaces, andtheir girdles, which were very wide, were ornamented with plates ofpolished bronze. After looking at them steadily for a time, Abigaildeclared that she would rather die than fall into the hands of suchrevolting creatures.

  Coming within hail, the Rasennæ began shouting furiously at us, butwe took no heed. Finding that their challenge was unanswered, theysent one of their boats in front of me, whilst the other passed roundthe stern intending to cut me off from the shore; but they reckonedwithout their host. The former boat dashed itself violently againstthe stockade of concealed boats, and after two or three ineffectualefforts to disengage herself, heeled over on her side, and remainedwith her stern considerably sunk below the sea.

  My trumpet sounded, my oars dipped, my warriors started to theirfeet, and a shout of triumph rang through the air.

  Thoroughly taken aback by our sudden revival, the other boatendeavoured to tack about to get out of our way; but so clumsily didshe set about the manœuvre, that she only succeeded in running herstern aground, and being thus entirely at my mercy, I poured intoher such a shower of missiles as probably her commander and crew hadnever before conceived possible.

  "Here, Tyrrhenians, Rasennæ, or whatever you call yourselves,"shouted Hannibal, as he worked away at his scorpions; "here is aheavenly shower of manna for you! If these arrows and Cretan pebblesare not to your taste, we can find you a nice little lot of spikedstakes."

  Bichri, too, was quite in his element. With such an immovable markwithin bowshot, he selected his victims just as he pleased, andwas careful to choose those who wore any article of apparel or anyornament that particularly struck his fancy.

  "Look at that fellow," I heard him say, "with the necklace of goldbeads inlaid with blue and enamelled with white: I must have him; butI must hit him on the head, or I shall be spoiling that charming bitof 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 protectthemselves under the incessant discharge of our missiles, they tookrefuge in their hold. Observing their retreat, Hannibal, Chamai andBichri, with a few followers, leaped down upon their deck; Jonah, inhis impetuous haste to go after them, came sprawling down headlongwith a tremendous thud, but rising rapidly to his feet, caught holdof the heels of an unhappy Tyrrhenian who had not had time to makehis escape, twirled him round and round in the air like a sling, anddashed out his brains against the side of the vessel. Short workwas made with the few who still remained above board, and in a fewminutes more, our people, who had forced their way down the hatchway,reappeared, bringing with them twenty men, of whom, to my surprise Ifound that no less than eleven were Phœnicians. Their costume andphysiognomy revealed this at a glance.

  Free now to turn my attention from the shore to the sea, I foundthat the _Dagon_ had already sunk one of the privateers, and inconcert 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, andwhile we were engaged in securing our prize, the remaining boat tookadvantage of our occupation to effect an escape.

  We lost as little time as possible in making our way back to thecoast towards the prizes we had left there. We were only just intime. The Samnites had been watching the issue of the contest,and were hastening down from the heights to pillage the abandonedvessels; but as I sent some detachments of men to keep guard, theyhad for the present to keep their distance, and to be content to bidetheir time before they could enjoy the crumbs of the expected feast.

  Our first business now was to empty the boat that had struck upon thesunken stockade; it had already nearly two cubits of water in itshold, and was consequently liable to sink at any moment. There wereno prisoners to be made here; during our engagement with the othervessels some of the men had escaped in a small boat, and the rest hadswum to shore, but only to be captured by the Samnites. The _Cabiros_and _Dagon_, however, had thirty-three prisoners, making, withthe nine I had myself taken, a total of forty-two, who were firststripped of everything of any value that was found belonging to them,and then distributed amongst our three crews, who would be entitledto dispose of them to our colonists on the coast of Libya, where nodoubt they would be in demand either for soldiers or artisans.

  The eleven Phœnicians were highly delighted at what had befallenthem; their capture was really a deliverance. They told me thatthey had formed part of the crew of a Sidonian gaoul which hadbeen wrecked off the coast of Sardinia, and that they had escapedin one of the small boats. They had attempted to reach one of oursettlements in the island, but tempestuous weather had frustratedtheir plan, and they had been carried out to sea, and finally driftedto the mainland. They had next tried to make their way northward toone of the Phœnician marts, established on the coast; and it wasmore than a week ago since they had fallen into the hands of theRasennæ, who had sent them to serve on board their privateers. Allof them were ragged, and more than half-starved; and their rejoicingseemed unbounded, when I not only provided them with clothes andfood, but allowed them to enter my service on an equal footing withthe rest of my crews. Amongst them was an experienced helmsman anda master mariner; so that all our losses were to a great extentreplaced, especially as the whole of the wounded were in a fair wayof recovery.

  Stripping the dead, collecting the booty, conveying it on board, andmaking lists of it all, occupied us till the close of the day, and itwas past sunset before we were at liberty to avail ourselves of thewind, which was quite favourable for our coasting along towards theStraits of Sicily. We left the captured boats, and whatever plunderwas too heavy or too valueless to be worth carrying away, to theSamnites, who, with shouts of joy, rushed forward to take possessionof their unexpected prize.

  The evening meal was merry. Our successful negotiations, ourvictorious skirmish, our release of our countrymen, our valuablebooty, were all topics of mutual congratulation. Hannibal was loud inhis praises of my stratagem of the stockade.

  "Ah! that's an old trick," said Himilco; "we once played it off uponthe Carians of Rhodes, and took eleven of their ships and no end ofplunder. Old Tarshish mariners are adepts at schemes of that sort."

  Chamai held up a pair of twisted bracelets, and a necklace of asimilar 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 getfrom the Eridanus and the Rhone; you are to be congratulated on yourlucky prize."

  "Not one man did I either kill or catch," said Hanno; "and I supposeI shall have to be content with my share-and-share-alike portion ofthe plunder; but I confess I should be very pleased if I might have avase which I discovered amongst the captured goods; it is exquisitelypainted, and I have no doubt that these Rasennæ, ug
ly as they arethemselves, are highly-skilled as artists."

  I told him that I saw no difficulty in yielding to his wish, andrequested him to submit to me his inventory of the spoil. Casting myeye at it, I was not surprised to find that the articles made of goldwere considerably larger in number than those made of silver. I knewthat the Tyrrhenians had little or no communication with Tarshish andthe other silver-producing countries, whilst they have free access tothe sands of the Eridanus, and that by the road made by the Ligurianconvicts they could cross the mountains to the Rhone. There werea good many articles of copper which came from Lower Vitalia, andamongst them some figures, which were evidently images of gods.

  I sent for Gisgo to come on board and interrogate the prisoners intheir own language. In their peculiar muffled accent they informedus that they had come from Populonia, and were subjects of KingTarchnas, who ruled over twenty Tyrrhenian cities. Populonia, theysaid, was their only sea-port, and thence they always set sail upontheir cruises, their ships being manned with Ligurians as oarsmen andsailors, whilst their fighting men were nearly all Rasennæ. Two oftheir chiefs they mentioned as having been killed in the fight, whosenames were Vivenna and Spurinna; Himilco gave it as his opinion thatthese names were identical with the Vitalian Vibius and Spurius.

  Upon being shown the copper images of the gods which had beenfound 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 ourKhousor Phtah; Fouflouns the Dionysus of the Hellenes; and anothercalled Menvra, of whom I had never heard, but whom Himilco declaredto the Vitalian goddess Minerva.

  The Tyrrhenians went on to say that they were allies of the Latinsand of the Opsci, or Occi, a name which in our language signifies"workmen;" and that the semi-barbarous Samnites, although of thesame race and speaking the same tongue as the Opsci, had committeddepredations against them on the river Volturnus, or "the rollingstream;" and had likewise attacked the Latin settlement of Novla, or"the new city." In defence of their allies, the Rasennæ had declaredwar against the Samnites, and were on their way to attack them whenthey encountered us, and fell into our power. This was all theinformation they had to give me, and I sent the men back to the careof the crew, and we all retired to rest.

  CLOSE TO ETNA. _To face page 163._]

  The day had hardly dawned when I rose, and looking a little to theleft, I could see behind us the light, the flames, and the luridsmoke that issued from the crater of Mount Etna. The two women andall the men, who had never before seen such a spectacle, lookedon, some in astonishment, some in downright terror. Hannibal wasas surprised as anyone, and declared that except he knew to thecontrary, he should have taken it for the mouth of hell; adding, thathe thought it a great pity that all that mighty force of fire couldnot be utilised; it would make a splendid apparatus for reducing anobstinate city in a siege. To my inquiry whether he had never seenthe burning mountain in Cilicia, he replied that, although he hadpassed several times, it had never been his good fortune to be thereat the time of an eruption.

  We passed sufficiently close to Etna to be able most distinctly tohear its roar. The women, really alarmed, betook themselves to theircabin. Hanno asked what was the distance of the volcano from us.

  "Sixty stadia at least," I answered; "you seem surprised at ourseeing it so plainly, but in the broad daylight it will not be nearlyso conspicuous, although it is very lofty. My own reason for comingso close to it now is that we may the more directly steer into theStraits of Sicily."

  Jonah, who at first had been terribly alarmed, did not disguise hissatisfaction that we were not going any closer to the mountain. "Allvery 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 thetime is coming when El-Adonai shall demolish him, and the children ofIsrael shall feast upon him and his dainties!"

  "Hold your tongue, you fool!" said Chamai. "None of your idiotstories of Dan, and your fables of the drunken Ephraimites!"

  "Neither stories nor fables!" retorted Jonah; "have you not a proofbefore your eyes that it is all true? What will the people of Eltekehsay when I tell them I have seen Nergal's kitchen?"

  "Hush! I say! Shut up!" And as Chamai spoke, he gave the giant aviolent 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 approachedthe strait, Himilco and his sailors amused themselves by working upAminocles 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 rightand left, and you shall see Scylla and Charybdis. You know who theyare. They are the ravenous monsters that swallow up whole ships andall their crews. Listen! you can hear them roaring now; they seemdesperately hungry."

  "I remember," said one of the sailors, "seeing Charybdis suck inthree gaouls and two galleys at one draught, just as easily as Icould 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 suchviolence that the admiral was pitched clean over there into the jawsof 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 Iwas at the prow, vainly endeavouring to make out the Cabiri, whenall at once I felt her foamy mouth open gently, close behind me, andsnap off my cap--lucky it wasn't my head too--and before I could turnround, Charybdis had swallowed a whole bottle of my best Berytos andthree whole cheeses!"

  Jonah, who was looking on intensely interested, said:

  "And what did you do, pilot? I know what I should have done. I shouldhave given her a good crack across her muzzle."

  "O, it was no good my saying anything to her; she wouldn't haveunderstood me; the only language she can comprehend is that of theLœstrigonians."

  He could hardly speak for laughing; but Aminocles cowered down uponthe deck, and covered his head with his loose tunic, the other sixPhocians scampering off in dismay to secrete themselves in the hold.