wagon, and let them stray along the eddying stream, to crop the honeyed
pasturage. Then from the wagon they took the clothing in their arms,
carried it into the dark water, and stamped it in the pits with rivalry
in speed. And after they had washed and cleansed it of all stains, they
spread it carefully along the shore, just where the waves washed up the
pebbles on the beach. Then bathing and anointing with the oil, they
presently took dinner on the river bank and waited for the clothes to
dry in the sunshine. And when they were refreshed with food, the maids
and she, they then began to play at ball, throwing their wimples off.
White-armed Nausicaä led their sport; and as the huntress Artemis goes
down a mountain, down long Taÿgetus or Erymanthus, exulting in the boars
and the swift deer, while round her sport the woodland nymphs, daughters
of ægis-bearing Zeus, and glad is Leto's heart, for all the rest her
child o'ertops by head and brow, and easily marked is she, though all
are fair; so did this virgin pure excel her women.

But when Nausicaä thought to turn toward home once more, to yoke the
mules and fold up the clean clothes, then a new plan the goddess formed,
clear-eyed Athene; for she would have Odysseus wake and see the
bright-eyed maid, who might to the Phaeacian city show the way. Just
then the princess tossed the ball to one of her women, and missing her
it fell in the deep eddy. Thereat they screamed aloud. Royal Odysseus
woke, and sitting up debated in his mind and heart:--

"Alas! To what men's land am I come now? Lawless and savage are they,
with no regard for right, or are they kind to strangers and reverent
toward the gods? It was as if there came to me the delicate voice of
maids--nymphs, it may be, who haunt the craggy peaks of hills, the
springs of streams and grassy marshes; or am I now, perhaps, near men of
human speech? Suppose I make a trial for myself, and see."