orward
on his journey. After traveling a pretty long distance he came to a
town situated at the foot of a mountain and not a great way from the
shore of the sea. On the outside of the town there was an immense
crowd of people, not only men and women, but children, too, all in
their best clothes and evidently enjoying a holiday. The crowd was
thickest toward the seashore, and in that direction, over the people's
heads, Jason saw a wreath of smoke curling upward to the blue sky. He
inquired of one of the multitude what town 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; an