Verae historiae

Athletes and those who pay attention to bodily training do not bestow all their care on securing a vigorous condition or on active exercise. They give some of it to the question of seasonable relaxation; in fact, they conceive this to be a very important part of their training. In just the same way I believe it to be fitting for those engaged with literature to relax their minds after a prolonged reading of the more weighty authors, and render them more vigorous for subsequent labor.

And this period of relaxation. would be more profitable for such persons if they should spend it over works which do not merely furnish pastime by their wit and charm, but which exhibit also some clever train of thought. This is the ideal I propose to myself for the following pages. For the novelty of the idea and the charm of the subject will not be their only attraction, nor yet the persuasive, consistent way in which I set forth lies of all sorts, but the fact that each of the events I record is a parody of some of the poets and historians and philosophers of antiquity, who wrote such wonderful and fabulous histories.

Ktesias, the Knidian, son of Ktesiochos, wrote an account of the countries of the Indians and their manners and customs, which he never saw himself or heard of from any one else. And Iambulus, too, wrote an astonishing account of things in the Atlantic Ocean. It is patent to all that he drew on his imagination, but he carried out his design pleasantly enough. Many other writers, too, have chosen the same subjects and written on them, assuming to give an account of their own wanderings and journeys, and the size of the beasts they saw, and the savagery of the people and their strange ways of life. The founder of the sect, the teacher of all this tomfoolery, was Homer's Odysseus, who talked to Alkinous and his people about the servitude of the winds; and one-eyed people who eat raw flesh and live barbarously; yes, and of creatures with a plurality of heads, and of transformations wrought on his companions by drugs. Any amount of such marvels he described to the Phaeacians, as if they were greenhorns.

Now, when I fell in with all these works, I did not greatly blame the men for their lying, because I saw at once that this was the habit of those even who promise to write philosophy. But the

I once made a voyage, setting forth from the Pillars of Hercules into the Western Ocean, with a following wind. The cause of my journey and my object in making it were the restless curiosity of my mind, a yearning for novelties, and a desire to learn what is the boundary of the ocean, and what sort of people dwell on the other side. To this end I stored a ship with a great quantity of provisions, put plenty of water, too, aboard, secured fifty of my comrades who were of my way of thinking, laid in, moreover, a good stock of

Well, we sailed for a day and a night with a favorable wind, still in sight of land and making no great progress. But as the sun rose on the next day the wind increased, the sea rose, it grew dark, and it became impossible even to take in the sails. Accordingly, we surrendered ourselves to the wind, and were storm-tossed for seventynine days; but on the eightieth the sun suddenly shone out, and we perceived an island at no great distance, high and wooded, with no fierce breakers thundering about it, for the sea had already greatly subsided. So we brought the ship to land and disembarked, and for some time we lay on the ground, as was natural after our long distress. But when we had got upon our feet we chose out thirty of our number to stay and guard the ship, and twenty to go inland with me and reconnoitre the island.

When we had advanced as much as six hundred yards from the sea through the woods we saw a pillar of wrought brass, bearing an inscription in Greek characters, blurred and rubbed away, which read: "Herakles and Dionysos came to this point." And there were two footprints in the rock close by--one a hundred feet long, the

We took some jars, and laid in a supply of water and of wine, too, from the river, and having encamped near it on the beach for the night, we set sail at daybreak with a gentle breeze. But about noonday, when we had lost sight of the island, a whirlwind suddenly arose, spun the ship

For seven days and as many nights we coursed through the air, and on the eighth we saw a great earth in the air like an island, bright and round, and shining with a great light. We made for it, came to anchor, and went ashore. On examining the country we found it inhabited and cultivated. By day we could see nothing from it, but when night came on many other islands appeared in the neighborhood, some larger and some smaller, of the color of fire, and a certain other earth below them with cities on it, and rivers and seas and forests and mountains. This we judged was our own.

We determined to go still farther into the interior, but we met some of the Hippogyps, as they call themselves, and they arrested us. These Hippogyps are men riding on great vultures, using the birds like horses, for the vultures are large and for the most part three-headed. You may understand their size from this: each of their feathers is longer and thicker than the mast of a good-sized merchantman. Now it was the business of our Hippogyps to fly about the country, and, if they found a stranger, bring him to the king. Accordingly, they took us in charge and

"If," said he, "I bring to a successful issue the war I am now waging against the inhabitants of the Sun, you will find this the pleasantest place of residence in the universe." We asked who the enemy were and what was the matter in dispute. "Phaeton," said he, "the king of the Sun-folk -for the Sun is inhabited as well as the Moonhas been at war with us for a long time already. It began from this cause: I had collected the poorest of my subjects and planned to send them off to colonize the Morning-star, which is a wilderness, uninhabited by any one. Now Phaeton, in his jealousy, stopped the colonists, meeting

He then invited us to supper, and we spent the night with him. [Here follows a detailed account of the extraordinary troops marshalled by Endymion and Phaeton, and the manner in which the battle was fought, the Moonites defeated, and the hero taken prisoner with two of his companions. The victorious Sun-folk built a wall between their country and the Moon, cutting off the sunlight, so that Endymion's people were forced to sue for peace, which was granted on easy terms, the chief stipulations being that the Moon should pay a yearly tribute of a hundred thousand gallons of dew, and that the Morning-star should be settled by colonists from the Sun as well as the Moon, and any one else who cared to join them.]

Such were the terms of the peace. The wall was forthwith torn down, and we prisoners-of-war were surrendered. On our return to the Moon

Then, after making our adieux to the king and his people, we embarked and set sail. On me Endymion also bestowed some gifts, two of their crystal tunics, five bronze ones, and a suit of beanarmor-all of which I left in the whale. He sent also a thousand Hippogyps to escort us fifty miles.

On our voyage we sailed past a number of places, and put in at the Morning-star, which we had just helped to colonize, and disembarked and took in water. Going aboard again we made off into the Zodiac on the left, all but touching the Sun as we sailed past. We did not go ashore, though many of my mates were eager to, for the wind did not permit it. However, we saw the country, which was blooming, rich, well-watered, and full of all pleasant things. When the Cloud-centaurs, who are mercenaries of Phaeton, saw us, they flew towards the ship; but, on learning that we were allies, they withdrew.

The Hippogyps, too, had already left us.

When we touched the water it was wonderful to see the excesses of our joy and delight. We made what cheer our means would allow, and sprang overboard and swam about, for there happened to be a calm and the sea was quiet. But a change for the better seems to be often the beginning of greater evils, and so it was in our case. For two days only we sailed with fine weather, and at daybreak, on the third, just before sunrise, we suddenly sighted a great number of sea-monsters and whales, with one among them bigger than all the rest, a hundred and seventy miles long. It came on with its mouth yawning open, making wide commotion in the sea, scattering foam in all directions, and showing its great teeth. They

When we were within, all was dark at first, and we saw nothing; but presently the creature opened its mouth, and we beheld a great cavern, so broad in all directions and so high that it might have held a city of ten thousand souls. In the midst lay the fragments of small fish and other animals, sails of ships, anchors, human bones, and merchandise; and down the middle there was dry land, with hills formed, I suppose, by the settling of the mud the creature drank down. At all events, there were woods on it, and plants of all sorts grew there and vegetables had sprung up, so that it was in all respects like tilled soil. The circumference of the land was twenty-seven miles. We could also see sea-fowl, gulls, and halcyons building nests in the trees.

Well, at first we wept a long time, but by-andby I roused my comrades and we propped the ship. Then we rubbed dry sticks together and made a fire, and cooked a meal of anything we could lay our hands on. There was an abundance of fish at hand of all sorts, and we still had some

Accordingly, we hastened our steps, and came upon an old man and a young one working very industriously in a garden-plot, and watering it with water from the spring. We halted, overjoyed, and at the same time filled with fear, and they must have had the same feeling towards us, for they stood speechless. But presently the old man said, "Who are you, strangers? Are you," said he, "some of the gods of the sea, or ill-fated mortals like ourselves? For we are men, and we were reared on dry land; but now we have become sea-dwellers, and we