me, took me up by the nape of my neck, and turned
me around, as a butcher would do a sheep's head. After having examined
me, and perceiving me to be so lean that I was nothing but skin and
bone, he let me go. He took up all the rest one by one, and viewed
them in the same manner. The captain being the fattest, he held him
with one hand, as I would do a sparrow, and thrust a spit through him;
he then kindled a great fire, roasted, and ate him in his apartment
for his supper. Having finished his repast, he returned to his porch,
where he lay and fell asleep, snoring louder than thunder. He slept
thus till morning. As for ourselves, it was not possible for us to
enjoy any rest, so that we passed the night in the most painful
apprehension that can be imagined. When day appeared the giant awoke,
got up, went out, and left us in the palace.

The next night we determined to revenge ourselves on the brutish
giant, and did so in the following manner. After he had again finished
his inhuman supper on another of our seamen, he lay down on his back,
and fell asleep. As soon as we heard him snore according to his
custom, nine of the boldest among us, and myself, took each of us a
spit, and putting the points of them into the fire till they were
burning hot, we thrust them into his eye all at once, and blinded[54]
him. The pain made him break out into a frightful yell: he started up,
and stretched out his hands in order to sacrifice some of us to his
rage, but we ran to such places as he could not reach; and after
having sought for us in vain, he groped for the gate, and went out,
howling in agony.

[Footnote 54: The youthful student will find in these references
passages which will remind in some degree of the incidents mentioned
in these tales: Homer's _Odyssey_, book iv, lines 350-410; _Iliad_,
book xx, line 220; book xiii, lines 20-35; Virgil, _Aeneid_, iii,
lines 356-542.]

We immediately left the palace, and came to the shore, where with some
timber that lay about in great quantities, we made some rafts, each
large enough to carry three men. We waited until day to get upon them,
for we hoped if the giant did not appear by sunrise, and give over his
howling, which we still heard, that he would prove to be dead; and if
that happened to be the case, we resolved to stay on that island, and
not to risk our lives upon the rafts. But day had scarcely appeared
when we perceived our cruel enemy, with two others, almost of the
same s