into a strange part of the sea, where neither himself nor any
of his mariners had ever sailed. This misfortune was entirely
owing to the foolish curiosity of his shipmates, who, while
Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some very bulky leathern bags,
in which they supposed a valuable treasure to be concealed. But
in each of these stout bags, King Aeolus, the ruler of the
winds, had tied up a tempest, and had given it to Ulysses to
keep in order that he might be sure of a favorable passage
homeward to Ithaca; and when the strings were loosened, forth
rushed the whistling blasts, like air out of a blown bladder,
whitening the sea with foam, and scattering the vessels nobody
could tell whither.

Immediately after escaping from this peril, a still greater one
had befallen him. Scudding before the hurricane, he reached a
place, which, as he afterwards found, was called Laestrygonia,
where some monstrous giants had eaten up many of his
companions, and had sunk every one of his vessels, except that
in which he himself sailed, by flinging great masses of rock at
them, from the cliffs along the shore. After going through such
troubles as these, you cannot wonder that King Ulysses was glad
to moor his tempest-beaten bark in a quiet cove of the green
island, which I began with telling you about. But he had
encountered so many dangers from giants, and one-eyed Cyclops,
and monsters of the sea and land, that he could not help
dreading some mischief, even in this pleasant and seemingly
solitary spot. For two days, therefore, the poor weather-worn
voyagers kept quiet, and either staid on board of their vessel,
or merely crept along under the cliffs that bordered the shore;
and to keep themselves alive, they dug shellfish out of the