a hog, which lay wallowing in the marble basin, and filled it
from brim to brim.

But we must leave the prudent Eurylochus waiting in the outer
hall, and follow his friends into the inner secrecy of the
palace. As soon as the beautiful woman saw them, she arose from
the loom, as I have told you, and came forward, smiling, and
stretching out her hand. She took the hand of the foremost
among them, and bade him and the whole party welcome.

"You have been long expected, my good friends," said she. "I
and my maidens are well acquainted with you, although you do
not appear to recognize us. Look at this piece of tapestry, and
judge if your faces must not have been familiar to us."

So the voyagers examined the web of cloth which the beautiful
woman had been weaving in her loom; and, to their vast
astonishment, they saw their own figures perfectly represented
in different colored threads. It was a life-like picture of
their recent adventures, showing them in the cave of
Polyphemus, and how they had put out his one great moony eye;
while in another part of the tapestry they were untying the
leathern bags, puffed out with contrary winds; and farther on,
they beheld themselves scampering away from the gigantic king
of the Laestrygons, who had caught one of them by the leg.
Lastly, there they were, sitting on the desolate shore of this
very island, hungry and downcast, and looking ruefully at the
bare bones of the stag which they devoured yesterday. This was
as far as the work had yet proceeded; but when the beautiful
woman should again sit down at her loom, she would probably