n it was near by and why so many persons were here
assembled together.

"This is the kingdom of Iolchos," answered the man, "and we are the
subjects of King Pelias. Our monarch has summoned us together, that we
may see him sacrifice a black bull to Neptune, who, they say, is his
majesty's father. Yonder is the king, where you see the smoke going up
from the altar."

While the man spoke he eyed Jason with great curiosity; for his garb was
quite unlike that of the Iolchians, and it looked very odd to see a
youth with a leopard's skin over his shoulders and each hand grasping a
spear. Jason perceived, too, that the man stared particularly at his
feet, one of which, you remember, was bare, while the other was
decorated with his father's golden-stringed sandal.

"Look at him! only look at him!" said the man to his next neighbor. "Do
you see? He wears but one sandal!"

Upon this, first one person and then another began to stare at Jason,
and everybody seemed to be greatly struck with something in his aspect;
though they turned their eyes much oftener toward his feet than to any
other part of his figure. Besides, he could hear them whispering to one
another.

"One sandal! One sandal!" they kept saying. "The man with one sandal!
Here he is at last! Whence has he come? What does he mean to do? What
will the king say to the one-sandaled man?"

Poor Jason was greatly abashed and made up his mind that the people of
Iolchos were exceedingly ill-bred to take such public notice of an
accidental deficiency in his dress. Meanwhile, whether it were that they
hustled him forward or that Jason of his own accord thrust a passage
through the crowd, it so happened that he soon found himself close to
the smoking altar, where King Pelias was sacrificing the black bull. The
murmur and hum of the multitude, in their surprise at the spectacle of
Jason with his one bare foot, grew so loud that it disturbed the
ceremonies; and the king, holding the great knife with which he was
just going to cut the bull's throat, turned angrily about and fixed his
eyes on Jason. The people had now withdrawn from around him, so that the
youth stood in an open space, near the smoking altar, front to front
with the angry King Pelias.

"Who are you?" cried the king, with a terrible frown. "And how dare you
make this disturbance, while I am sacrificing a black bull to my father
Neptune?"

"It is no fault of mine," answered Jason. "Your majesty must blame the