"My father," she said, "will you not order mules and a coach to be got
ready, that I may go and wash, I and my maids, at the cisterns that stand
without the city?"

"What washing does my daughter speak of?" said Alcinous.

"Mine and my brothers' garments," she replied, "that have contracted soil
by this time with lying by so long in the wardrobe. Five sons have you
that are my brothers; two of them are married, and three are bachelors;
these last it concerns to have their garments neat and unsoiled; it may
advance their fortunes in marriage: and who but I their sister should have
a care of these things? You yourself, my father, have need of the whitest
apparel when you go, as now, to the council."

She used this plea, modestly dissembling her care of her own nuptials to
her father; who was not displeased at this instance of his daughter's
discretion; for a seasonable care about marriage may be permitted to a
young maiden, provided it be accompanied with modesty and dutiful
submission to her parents in the choice of her future husband; and there
was no fear of Nausicaa choosing wrongly or improperly, for she was as
wise as she was beautiful, and the best in all Phaeacia were suitors to
her for her love. So Alcinous readily gave consent that she should go,
ordering mules and a coach to be prepared. And Nausicaa brought from her
chamber all her vestments, and laid them up in the coach, and her mother
placed bread and wine in the coach, and oil in a golden cruse, to soften
the bright skins of Nausicaa and her maids when they came out of the
river.

Nausicaa, making her maids get up into the coach with her, lashed the
mules, till they brought her to the cisterns which stood a little on the