rts the two
opposite poles midway."

"And when we come to that line your worship speaks of," said Sancho,
"how far shall we have gone?"

"Very far," said Don Quixote, "for of the three hundred and sixty
degrees that this terraqueous globe contains, as computed by Ptolemy,
the greatest cosmographer known, we shall have traveled one-half when we
come to the line I spoke of."

"By God," said Sancho, "your worship gives me a nice authority for what
you say, putrid Dolly something transmogrified, or whatever it is."

Don Quixote laughed at the interpretation Sancho put upon "computed,"
and the name of the cosmographer Ptolemy.

* * * * *

"I can see with my own eyes," said Sancho, "that we have not moved five
yards away from the bank, or shifted two yards from where the animals
stand, for there are Rocinante and Dapple in the very same place where
we left them; and watching a point, as I do now, I swear by all that's
good, we are not stirring or moving at the pace of an ant."

They now came in sight of some large water mills that stood in the
middle of the river,[462-1] and the instant Don Quixote saw them he
cried out to Sancho, "Seest thou there, my friend? there stands the
city, castle, or fortress, where there is, no doubt, some knight in
durance, or ill-used queen, or infanta, or princess, in aid of whom I am
brought hither."

"What the devil city, fortress, or castle is your worship talking about,
senor?" said Sancho; "don't you see that those are mills that stand in
the river to grind corn?"

"Hold thy peace, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "though they look like mills
they are not so; I have already told thee that enchantments transform
things and change their proper shapes; I do not mean to say they really
change them from one form into another, but that it seems as though they
did, as experience proved in the transformation of Dulcinea, sole refuge
of my hopes."

By this time, the boat, having reached the middle of the stream, began
to move less slowly than hitherto. The millers belonging to the mills,
when they saw the boat coming down the river, and on the point of being
sucked in by the draught of the wheels, ran out in haste, several of
them, with long poles to stop it, and being all mealy, with faces and
garments covered with flour, they presented a sinister appearance. They
raised loud shouts, crying, "Devils of men, where are you going to? Are
you mad? Do you want to dr