He
told me that, after many toils and dangers, I should at last return
in safety to my native country, but would not point out the time
when. He then showed me the neighbouring islands, five of which
appeared near to me, and a sixth at a distance. "Those next to
you," said he, "where you see a great fire burning, are the
habitations of the wicked; the sixth is the city of dreams; behind
that lies the island of Calypso, which you cannot see yet. When you
get beyond these you will come to a large tract of land inhabited by
those who live on the side of the earth directly opposite to you,
{132} there you will suffer many things, wander through several
nations, and meet with some very savage and unsociable people, and
at length get into another region."

Having said thus, he took a root of mallow out of the earth, and
putting it into my hand, bade me remember, when I was in any danger,
to call upon that; and added, moreover, that if, when I came to the
Antipodes, I took care "never to stir the fire with a sword, and
never to eat lupines," I might have hopes of returning to the Island
of the Blessed.

I then got everything ready for the voyage, supped with, and took my
leave of them. Next day, meeting Homer, I begged him to make me a
couple of verses for an inscription, which he did, and I fixed them
on a little column of beryl, at the mouth of the harbour; the
inscription was as follows:

"Dear to the gods, and favourite of heaven,
Here Lucian lived: to him alone 'twas given,
Well pleased these happy regions to explore,
And back returning, seek his native shore."

I stayed that day, and the next set sail; the heroes attending to
take their leave of us; when Ulysses, unknown to Penelope, slipped a
letter into my hand for Calypso, at the island of Ogygia.
Rhadamanthus was so obliging as to send with us Nauplius the pilot,
that, if we stopped at the neighbouring islands, and they should lay
hold on us, he might acquaint them that we were only on our passage
to another place.

As soon as we got out of the sweet-scented air, we came into another
that smelt of asphaltus, pitch, and sulphur burning together, with a
most intolerable stench, as of burned carcases: the whole element
above us was dark and dismal, distilling a kind of pitchy dew upon
our heads; we heard the sound of stripes, and the yellings of men in
torment.

We saw but one of these islands; that which we landed on I will give