silver cord was loosened, and all the boisterous winds rushed forth
and bore them weeping and wailing far from their native land. Roused
by the tumult of the tempest, and the despairing cries of his men,
Odysseus sprang up, just in time to see the last glimpse of the hills
of Ithaca as they melted in the distance. His first impulse was to
fling himself into the sea and perish; but mastering his frenzy he
covered his face, and sat down in speechless misery, while the winds
bore them swiftly back to the isle of Æolus.

With a heavy heart Odysseus went up to the house where he had been
received so kindly, and told his sorrowful tale. "Pity my weakness,"
he pleaded, "and let me not suffer for the sins of my men." But Æolus
was not to be moved. "Begone," he said sternly, "quit this island at
once, thou caitiff! Heaven hath set the seal of its hatred upon thee,
and I may not give countenance to such as thou. Out of my sight!" he
thundered, and Odysseus crept sadly back to his ship.

Then for six days they voyaged on, toiling continually at the oar, for
now there was no favourable wind to waft them on. They were almost
dead with fatigue when they sighted land on the seventh day, and came
to anchor in a sheltered bay, surrounded on all sides by towering
cliffs, with a narrow entrance, guarded by a tall spire of rock on
either side The place was called Læstrygonia, and the nights in that
country are so short that the shepherd as he drives home his flocks at
sundown meets his fellow-toiler on his way to the pasture.

The cautious Odysseus moored his ship close to the entrance of the
harbour, while all the others came to anchor at the head of the bay
under the shadow of the cliffs; for there was not a wave, not a
ripple, in that sheltered spot, but the water slumbered, as in a