and his sons in the hall. And they filled a bowl with wine eleven
years old, exceeding choice, which was reserved for honoured guests.
And after they had finished the bowl, and offered prayer to Athene,
they parted for the night. For Telemachus a bed was prepared in the
portico, and close by him slept Pisistratus, the youngest of Nestor's
sons.

When Telemachus rose next morning he found his host already afoot,
giving orders to his sons to prepare the sacrifice to Athene. One was
sent to fetch the heifer, another to summon the goldsmith, and a third
to bring up the crew of Telemachus' ship, while the rest busied
themselves in raising the altar and making all ready for the
sacrifice.

Presently the heifer was driven lowing into the courtyard, and the
goldsmith followed with the instruments of his art. Nestor gave him
gold, and the smith beat it into thin leaf with his hammer, and laid
it skilfully over the horns of the heifer. A handmaid brought pure
water, and barley-meal in a basket, while one of Nestor's sons stood
ready with an axe, and another held a bowl to catch the blood. Then
Nestor dipped his hands in the water, took barley-meal from the basket
and sprinkled it on the head of the beast, and cutting a tuft of hair
from the forehead cast it into the fire. The prayer was spoken, and
all due rites being ended he who held the axe smote the heifer on the
head, just behind the horns. The women raised the sacrificial cry as
the heifer dropped to the ground; and next they whose office it was
lifted up the victim's head, and Pisistratus cut the throat. When the
last quiver of life was over they flayed the carcass, cut strips of
flesh from the thighs, and enveloping them in fat, burnt them on the
altar. The gods had now their share of the feast; the rest was cut