us 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 hogpen. 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 had! what
little red eyes, half buried in fat! and what long snouts, instead of
Grecian noses!

But brutes as they certainly were, they yet had enough of human nature in
them to be shocked at their own hideousness; and still intending to groan,
they uttered a viler grunt and squeal than before. So harsh and
ear-piercing it was, that you would have fancied a butcher was sticking
his knife into each of their throats, or, at the very least, that somebody
was pulling every hog by his funny little twist of a tail.

"Begone to your sty!" cried the enchantress, giving them some smart
strokes with her wand; and then she turned to the serving-men. "Drive out
these swine, and throw down some acorns for them to eat."

The door of the saloon being flung open, the drove of hogs ran in all
directions save the right one, in accordance with their hoggish
perversity,