llow a group of mariners to enter.

After a few steps he stopped, attracted by a faint whistle which seemed
to be calling him from the interior of a cabin. An old woman, wrapped in
a black mantle, stood in her doorway making signs to him. Within, by the
light of an earthen lamp hanging by a slender chain, he could see
several women squatting on mats in the attitude of placid beasts, with
no other sign of life than a fixed smile which displayed their shining
teeth.

"I am in haste, good mother," said the stranger, smiling.

"Stay awhile, son of Zeus!" urged the old woman in the Hellenic idiom,
disfigured by the harshness of her accent and by the hiss of breathing
between toothless gums. "The moment I saw you I knew you for a Greek.
All who come from your country are gay and beautiful; you look like
Apollo seeking his celestial sisters. Enter! Here you will find
them----"

Approaching the stranger, and catching him by the border of his chlamys,
she enumerated the charms of her Iberian, Balearic, or African wards;
some majestic and grand like Juno, others small and graceful like the
hetaerae of Alexandria and Greece; and seeing that the customer released
his garment from her clutch and continued on his way, she raised her
voice, believing that she had not divined his taste, and she spoke of
white youths with long hair, beautiful as the Syrian boys who were
contended for by the gallants of Athens.

The Greek had passed out of the winding lane, but he could still hear
the voice of the old woman, who seemed to become shamelessly intoxicated
crying her infamous wares. He was now in the country, at the beginning
of the high road to the city. On his right rose the hill of the temple,
and at its base, opposite the flight of stone steps, he saw a house
larger than the others, an inn with doors and windows illuminated by
lamps of red earthenware.

Seated on stone benches were sailors from all countries, demanding food
in their several languages--Roman soldiers wearing corselets of bronze
scales, short swords hanging from their shoulders; at their feet
helmets topped by a crest of red horsehair in the form of a brush;
rowers from Massilia, almost naked, their knives half hidden among the
folds of the rag knotted around their waists; Phoenician and
Carthaginian mariners with wide trousers, wearing tall caps in the form
of mitres with heavy silver pendants; negroes from Alexandria, athletic
and slow of movement, displaying thei