and prayed Ulysses to tell him his name, that he might bestow a gift upon
the man who had given him such brave liquor. The Cyclops, he said, had
grapes, but this rich juice, he swore, was simply divine. Again Ulysses
plied him with the wine, and the fool drank it as fast as he poured out,
and again he asked the name of his benefactor, which Ulysses, cunningly
dissembling, said, "My name is Noman: my kindred and friends in my own
country call me Noman."

"Then," said the Cyclop, "this is the kindness I will show thee, Noman: I
will eat thee last of all thy friends." He had scarce expressed his savage
kindness, when the fumes of the strong wine overcame him, and he reeled
down upon the floor and sank into a dead sleep.

Ulysses watched his time, while the monster lay insensible, and,
heartening up his men, they placed the sharp end of the stake in the fire
till it was heated red-hot, and some god gave them a courage beyond that
which they were used to have, and the four men with difficulty bored the
sharp end of the huge stake, which they had heated red-hot, right into the
eye of the drunken cannibal, and Ulysses helped to thrust it in with all
his might, still farther and farther, with effort, as men bore with an
auger, till the scalded blood gushed out, and the eye-ball smoked, and the
strings of the eye cracked, as the burning rafter broke in it, and the eye
hissed, as hot iron hisses when it is plunged into water.

He, waking, roared with the pain so loud that all the cavern broke into
claps like thunder. They fled, and dispersed into corners. He plucked the
burning stake from his eye, and hurled the wood madly about the cave. Then
he cried out with a mighty voice for his brethren the Cyclops, that dwelt
hard by in caverns upon hills; they, hearing the terrible shout, came
flocking from all parts to inquire, What ailed Polyphemus? and what cause