had taken from the city of the Cicones, and eating the flesh of
the goats; and as we sat we looked across to the land of the
Cyclops, seeing the smoke and hearing the voices of the men and of
the sheep and of the goats. And when the sun set and darkness came
over the land, we lay down upon the seashore and slept.

"The next day I gathered my men together, and said, 'Abide ye
here, dear friends; I with my own ship and my own company will go
and find whether the folk that dwell in yonder island are just or
unjust.'

"So I climbed into my ship, and bade my company follow me: so we
came to the land of the Cyclops. Close to the shore was a cave,
with laurels round about the mouth. This was the dwelling of the
Cyclops. Alone he dwelt, a creature without law. Nor was he like
to mortal men, but rather to some wooded peak of the hills that
stands out apart from all the rest.

"Then I bade the rest of my comrades abide by the ship, and keep
it, but I took twelve men, the bravest that there were in the
crew, and went forth. I had with me a goat-skin full of the wine,
dark red, and sweet, which the priest of Apollo [Footnote: A-pol'-
lo.] at Ismarus had given me. So precious was it that none in his
house knew of it saving himself and his wife. When they drank of
it they mixed twenty measures of water with one of wine, and the
smell that went up from it was wondrous sweet. No man could easily
refrain from drinking it. With this wine I filled a great skin and
bore it with me; also I bare corn in a pouch, for my heart within
me told me that I should need it.