tality."

Eumaeus remained totally unconvinced by this solemn assertion. "Talk no
more of him," he said with emotion, "it cuts me to the heart to hear
his very name. Would that it might be as thou sayest!--but 'tis an
idle dream. Peace be unto his ashes! And may the gods at least
preserve unto us his son, Telemachus, who lately departed on a witless
errand, led thereto, as I think, by some malign deity who hates the
house of Odysseus. But no more of this! Tell me rather of thyself, who
and whence thou art, and how thou camest to Ithaca."

Eumaeus had not extolled the fertile invention of Odysseus for nothing.
Forthwith he began a wondrous tale of adventure, a little epic in
itself, with some points of resemblance to his own true story. "I am a
native of Crete," he began, "and the son of a wealthy man. When my
father died I received but a scanty portion of his goods.
Nevertheless, because of my valour and the might of my hands, I won a
noble and wealthy lady for my wife. Thou wouldst not deem, perhaps, to
see me now, that I was once a mighty man of war; yet even in the
stubble we may judge what the wheat has been. From my youth up I lived
amidst the clash of shield and spear, and loved battle and ambush,
siege and foray. But I cared not for plodding industry, which gives
increase unto a house, and fills it with the bright faces of children.
Such I was as Heaven made me, a man of war and blood.

"Before the sons of Greece went up to Troy I was nine times chosen
captain of an armed band to make war in the land of strangers, and
came back laden with booty, so that my name was known and dreaded in
Crete. And when the summons went round in all the coasts of Greece to
follow the banner of Agamemnon, who but I was chosen by the common
voice to share the command with Idomeneus? I was fain to renounce that
hard and perilous service, but it might not be; so for nine years I
fought at Troy, and after our return to Crete I abode but one month
with my wife and children, for at the end of that time my spirit
called me to Egypt. I manned nine ships, and on the fifth day the
north wind brought me safe with all my company to the land of Nile.

"Then I sent out a few chosen men to explore the country, and kept
myself close with the rest of my force until they should bring back
their report. But my scouts forgot their duty, and carried away by
lust of plunder began to harry and ravage the fields of the Egyptians.
Quickly the hue and cr