I would also say before proceeding further that in some parts of France and Germany it is still the custom to have but one or at most two great washing days in the year.  Each household is provided with an enormous quantity of linen, which when dirty is just soaked and rinsed, and then put aside till the great washing day of the year.  This is why Nausicaa wants a waggon, and has to go so far afield.  If it was only a few collars and a pocket-handkerchief or two she could no doubt have found water enough near at hand.  The big spring or autumn wash, however, is evidently intended.

Returning now to the Odyssey, when he had heard what Nausicaa wanted Alcinous said: 

“’You shall have the mules, my love, and whatever else you have a mind for, so be off with you.’

“Then he told the servants, and they got the waggon out and harnessed the mules, while the princess brought the clothes down from the linen room and placed them on the waggon.  Her mother got ready a nice basket of provisions with all sorts of good things, and a goatskin full of wine.  The princess now got into the waggon, and her mother gave her a golden cruse of oil that she and her maids might anoint themselves.

“Then Nausicaa took the whip and reins and gave the mules a touch which sent them off at a good pace.  They pulled without nagging, and carried not only Nausicaa and her wash of clothes, but the women also who were with her.

“When they got to the river they went to the washing pools, through which even in summer there ran enough pure water to wash any quantity of linen, no matter how dirty.  Here they unharnessed the mules and turned them out to feed in the sweet juicy grass that grew by the river-side.  They got the clothes out of the waggon, brought them to the water, and vied with one another in treading upon them and banging them about to get the dirt out of them.  When they had got them quite clean, they laid them out by the seaside where the waves had raised a high beach of shingle, and set about washing and anointing themselves with olive oil.  Then they got their dinner by the side of the river, and waited for the sun to finish drying the clothes.  By and by, after dinner, they took off their head-dresses and began to play at ball, and Nausicaa sang to them.”

I think you will agree with me that there is no haziness—­no milking of ewes that have had a lamb with them all night—­here.  The writer is at home and on her own ground.

“When they had done folding the clothes and were putting the mules to the waggon before starting home again, Minerva thought it was time Ulysses should wake up and see the handsome girl who was to take him to the city of the Phaeacians.  So the princess threw a ball at one of the maids, which missed the maid and fell into the water.  On this they all shouted, and the noise they made woke up Ulysses, who sat up in his bed of leaves and wondered where in the world he could have got to.