“Stranger,” said she, “rise and let us be going back to the town; I will introduce you at the house of my excellent father, where I can tell you that you will meet all the best people among the Phaeacians.  But be sure and do as I bid you, for you seem to be a sensible person.  As long as we are going past the fields and farm lands, follow briskly behind the waggon along with the maids and I will lead the way myself.  Presently, however, we shall come to the town, where you will find a high wall running all round it, and a good harbour on either side with a narrow entrance into the city, and the ships will be drawn up by the road side, for every one has a place where his own ship can lie.  You will see the market place with a temple of Neptune in the middle of it, and paved with large stones bedded in the earth.  Here people deal in ship’s gear of all kinds, such as cables and sails, and here, too, are the places where oars are made, for the Phaeacians are not a nation of archers; they know nothing about bows and arrows, but are a sea-faring folk, and pride themselves on their masts, oars, and ships, with which they travel far over the sea.

“I am afraid of the gossip and scandal that may be set on foot against me later on; for the people here are very ill-natured, and some low fellow, if he met us, might say, ’Who is this fine-looking stranger that is going about with Nausicaa?  Where did she find him?  I suppose she is going to marry him.  Perhaps he is a vagabond sailor whom she has taken from some foreign vessel, for we have no neighbours; or some god has at last come down from heaven in answer to her prayers, and she is going to live with him all the rest of her life.  It would be a good thing if she would take herself off and find a husband somewhere else, for she will not look at one of the many excellent young Phaeacians who are in love with her.’  This is the kind of disparaging remark that would be made about me, and I could not complain, for I should myself be scandalised at seeing any other girl do the like, and go about with men in spite of everybody, while her father and mother were still alive, and without having been married in the face of all the world.

“If, therefore, you want my father to give you an escort and to help you home, do as I bid you; you will see a beautiful grove of poplars by the road side dedicated to Minerva; it has a well in it and a meadow all round it.  Here my father has a field of rich garden ground, about as far from the town as a man’s voice will carry.  Sit down there and wait for a while till the rest of us can get into the town and reach my father’s house.  Then, when you think we must have done this, come into the town and ask the way to the house of my father Alcinous.  You will have no difficulty in finding it; any child will point it out to you, for no one else in the whole town has anything like such a fine house as he has.  When you have got past the gates and through the outer