sparkled as it was poured out, and went bubbling down the
throat; while, of other sorts, the purple liquor was so clear
that you could see the wrought figures at the bottom of the
goblet. While the servants supplied the two and twenty guests
with food and drink, the hostess and her four maidens went from
one throne to another, exhorting them to eat their fill, and to
quaff wine abundantly, and thus to recompense them- selves, at
this one banquet, for the many days when they had gone without
a dinner. But whenever the mariners were not looking at them
(which was pretty often, as they looked chiefly into the basins
and platters), the beautiful woman and her damsels turned
aside, and laughed. Even the servants, as they knelt down to
present the dishes, might be seen to grin and sneer, while the
guests were helping themselves to the offered dainties.

And, once in a while, the strangers seemed to taste something
that they did not like.

"Here is an odd kind of spice in this dish," said one. "I can't
say it quite suits my palate. Down it goes, however."

"Send a good draught of wine down your throat," said his
comrade on the next throne. "That is the stuff to make this
sort of cookery relish well. Though I must needs say, the wine
has a queer taste too. But the more I drink of it, the better I
like the flavor."

Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat
at dinner a prodigiously long while; and it would really have
made you ashamed to see how they swilled down the liquor and