face was, and though there was a smile on it, it looked just as
wicked and mischievous as the ugliest serpent that ever was
seen; and fat-witted as the voyagers had made themselves, they
began to suspect that they had fallen into the power of an
evil-minded enchantress.

"Wretches," cried she, "you have abused a lady's hospitality;
and in this princely saloon your behavior has been suited to a
hog-pen. You are already swine in everything but the human
form, which you disgrace, and which I myself should be ashamed
to keep a moment longer, were you to share it with me. But it
will require only the slightest exercise of magic to make the
exterior conform to the hoggish disposition. Assume your proper
shapes, gormandizers, and begone to the sty!"

Uttering these last words, she waved her wand; and stamping her
foot imperiously, each of the guests was struck aghast at
beholding, instead of his comrades in human shape, one and
twenty hogs sitting on the same number of golden thrones. Each
man (as he still supposed himself to be) essayed to give a cry
of surprise, but found that he could merely grunt, and that, in
a word, he was just such another beast as his companions. It
looked so intolerably absurd to see hogs on cushioned thrones,
that they made haste to wallow down upon all fours, like other
swine. They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith
emitted the most awful grunting and squealing that ever came
out of swinish throats. They would have wrung their hands in
despair, but, attempting to do so, grew all the more desperate
for seeing themselves squatted on their hams, and pawing the
air with their fore trotters. Dear me! what pendulous ears they