"Hearken, my white-armed women, while I speak. Not without purpose on
the part of all the gods that hold Olympus is this man's meeting with
the godlike Phaeacians. A while ago, he really seemed to me ill-looking,
but now he is like the gods who hold the open sky. Ah, might a man like
this be called my husband, having his home here, and content to stay!
But give, my women, to the stranger food and drink."

She spoke, and very willingly they heeded and obeyed, and set beside
Odysseus food and drink. Then long-tried Odysseus eagerly drank and ate,
for he had long been fasting.

And now to other matters white-armed Nausicaä turned her thoughts. She
folded the clothes and laid them in the beautiful wagon, she yoked the
stout-hoofed mules, mounted herself, and calling to Odysseus thus she
spoke and said:--

"Arise now, stranger, and hasten to the town, that I may set you on the
road to my wise father's house, where you shall see, I promise you, the
best of all Phaeacia. Only do this,--you seem to me not to lack
understanding: while we are passing through the fields and farms, here
with my women, behind the mules and cart, walk rapidly along, and I will
lead the way. But as we near the town,--round which is a lofty rampart,
a beautiful harbor on each side and a narrow road between,--there curved
ships line the way; for every man has his own mooring-place. Beyond is
the assembly near the beautiful grounds of Poseidon, constructed out of
blocks of stone deeply imbedded. Further along, they make the black
ships' tackling, cables and canvas, and shape out the oars; for the
Phaeacians do not care for bow and quiver, only for masts and oars of
ships and the trim ships themselves, with which it is their joy to cross