We left them and returned to our companions in the ship.  We then took our casks, filled some of them with water, and some with wine from the river, slept one night on shore, and the next morning set sail, the wind being very moderate.  About noon, the island being now out of sight, on a sudden a most violent whirlwind arose, and carried the ship above three thousand stadia, lifting it up above the water, from whence it did not let us down again into the seas but kept us suspended {81a} in mid air, in this manner we hung for seven days and nights, and on the eighth beheld a large tract of land, like an island, {81b} round, shining, and remarkably full of light; we got on shore, and found on examination that it was cultivated and full of inhabitants, though we could not then see any of them.  As night came on other islands appeared, some large, others small, and of a fiery colour; there was also below these another land with seas, woods, mountains, and cities in it, and this we took to be our native country:  as we were advancing forwards, we were seized on a sudden by the Hippogypi, {82a} for so it seems they were called by the inhabitants; these Hippogypi are men carried upon vultures, which they ride as we do horses.  These vultures have each three heads, and are immensely large; you may judge of their size when I tell you that one of their feathers is bigger than the mast of a ship.  The Hippogypi have orders, it seems, to fly round the kingdom, and if they find any stranger, to bring him to the king:  they took us therefore, and carried us before him.  As soon as he saw us, he guessed by our garb what we were.  “You are Grecians,” said he, “are you not?” We told him we were.  “And how,” added he, “got ye hither through the air?” We told him everything that had happened to us; and he, in return, related to us his own history, and informed us, that he also was a man, that his name was Endymion, {82b} that he had been taken away from our earth in his sleep, and brought to this place where he reigned as sovereign.  That spot, {83a} he told us, which now looked like a moon to us, was the earth.  He desired us withal not to make ourselves uneasy, for that we should soon have everything we wanted.  “If I succeed,” says he, “in the war which I am now engaged in against the inhabitants of the sun, you will be very happy here.”  We asked him then what enemies he had, and what the quarrel was about?  “Phaeton,” he replied, “who is king of the sun {83b} (for that is inhabited as well as the moon), has been at war with us for some time past.  The foundation of it was this:  I had formerly an intention of sending some of the poorest of my subjects to establish a colony in Lucifer, which was uninhabited:  but Phaeton, out of envy, put a stop to it, by opposing me in the mid-way with his Hippomyrmices; {84} we were overcome and desisted, our forces at that time being unequal to theirs.  I have now, however, resolved to renew the war and fix my colony; if you have a