low parts trod them with their bare feet. The wagon was unharnessed
and the mules were left to graze along the river side. Now when they had
washed the garments they took them to the sea-shore and left them on the
clean pebbles to dry in the sun. Then Nausicaa and her companions went
into the river and bathed and sported in the water.

When they had bathed they sat down and ate the meal that had been put on
the wagon for them. The garments were not yet dried and Nausicaa called
on her companions to play. Straightway they took a ball and threw it
from one to the other, each singing a song that went with the game. And
as they played on the meadow they made a lovely company, and the
Princess Nausicaa was the tallest and fairest and noblest of them all.

Before they left the river side to load the wagon they played a last
game. The Princess threw the ball, and the girl whose turn it was to
catch missed it. The ball went into the river and was carried down the
stream. At that they all raised a cry. It was this cry that woke up
Odysseus who, covered over with leaves, was then sleeping in the shelter
of the two olive trees.

[Illustration]

He crept out from under the thicket, covering his nakedness with leafy
boughs that he broke off the trees. And when he saw the girls in the
meadow he wanted to go to them to beg for their help. But when they
looked on him they were terribly frightened and they ran this way and
that way and hid themselves. Only Nausicaa stood still, for Pallas
Athene had taken fear from her mind.

Odysseus stood a little way from her and spoke to her in a beseeching
voice. 'I supplicate thee, lady, to help me in my bitter need. I would
kneel to thee and clasp thy knees only I fear thine anger. Have pity
upon me. Yesterday was the twentieth day that I was upon the sea, driven
hither and thither by the waves and the winds.'

And still Nausicaa stood, and Odysseus looking upon her was filled with
reverence for her, so noble she seemed. 'I know not as I look upon
thee,' he said, 'whether thou art a goddess or a mortal maiden. If thou
art a mortal maiden, happy must thy father be and thy mother and thy
brothers. Surely they must be proud and glad to see thee in the dance,
for thou art the very flower of maidens. And happy above all will he be
who will lead thee to his home as his bride. Never have my eyes beheld
one who had such beauty and such nobleness. I think thou art like to the
young palm-tree I once