Then for six days they voyaged on, toiling continually at the oar, for now there was no favourable wind to waft them on.  They were almost dead with fatigue when they sighted land on the seventh day, and came to anchor in a sheltered bay, surrounded on all sides by towering cliffs, with a narrow entrance, guarded by a tall spire of rock on either side The place was called Laestrygonia, and the nights in that country are so short that the shepherd as he drives home his flocks at sundown meets his fellow-toiler on his way to the pasture.

The cautious Odysseus moored his ship close to the entrance of the harbour, while all the others came to anchor at the head of the bay under the shadow of the cliffs; for there was not a wave, not a ripple, in that sheltered spot, but the water slumbered, as in a mountain tarn.  Having secured his vessel, by making fast her cable to the rocks, he scaled the cliff with a few of his men, and seeing smoke rising in the distance he sent three scouts to explore the country, meantime going back to his ship to await their return.

Sooner than he expected he saw two of the men descending the cliff in headlong haste, and as they drew near he could read on their white, terror-stricken faces what sort of news they had to bring.  Their report was as dismal as their looks.  When they left the coast they struck into a level road cut through the forest, and presently came to a spring on the outskirts of a town.  Here they met a maiden, drawing water at the well, who told them that she was the daughter of Antiphates, king of that country, and offered to conduct them to her father’s house.  They went with her, and when she had brought them home she left them to summon her father.

“As soon as we caught sight of him,” continued he who was telling the story, “we were stricken with terror, for he was of monstrous stature and hideous to behold.  One of us he seized, and rent him in pieces on the spot; but we two fled for our lives.  There is no time to lose.  The town is in uproar, and before long the whole cannibal tribe will be upon us.”

Hardly had he finished when a multitude of these huge savages was seen rushing along the edge of the cliffs which overlooked the harbour.  Arming themselves with great rocks, they began to bombard the ships which had taken the inside station; and a dreadful din arose of shattered timbers, mingled with the cries of dying men.  Not one ship escaped destruction, and when that part of their work was ended the barbarians swarmed down the cliffs, speared the floating corpses, and dragged them to land for a cannibal feast.

All this time Odysseus and his crew had been helpless spectators of this scene of massacre.  But when they saw that all was over they cut their cable, and taking to their oars rowed with might and main until a wide space of open water divided them from that ill-fated shore, where all their friends had found a grave.

IV