this, which, indeed, must be such as the gods drink in heaven.'

"Then I gave him the cup again, and he drank. Thrice I gave it to
him, and thrice he drank, not knowing what it was, and how it
would work within his brain.

"Then I spake to him: 'Thou didst ask my name, Cyclops. My name is
No Man. And now that thou knowest my name, thou shouldest give me
thy gift.'

"And he said: 'My gift shall be that I will eat thee last of all
thy company.'

"And as he spake, he fell back in a drunken sleep. Then I bade my
comrades be of good courage, for the time was come when they
should be delivered. And they thrust the stake of olive wood into
the fire till it was ready, green as it was, to burst into flame,
and they thrust it into the monster's eye; for he had but one eye
and that was in the midst of his forehead, with the eyebrow below
it. And I, standing above, leaned with all my force upon the
stake, and turned it about, as a man bores the timber of a ship
with a drill. And the burning wood hissed in the eye, just as the
red-hot iron hisses in the water when a man seeks to temper steel
for a sword.

"Then the giant leapt up, and tore away the stake, and cried
aloud, so that all the Cyclopes who dwelt on the mountain-side
heard him and came about his cave, asking him: `What aileth thee,
Polyphemus, that thou makest this uproar in the peaceful night,
driving away sleep? Is any one robbing thee of thy sheep, or