He was greatly astonished, and in turn gave us an account of his own fortunes. "By birth, friends, I am a Cypriote. Being engaged
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in commerce, I set out from my native land with my boy, whom you see, and a number of slaves as well, and sailed for Italy, carrying a cargo of all sorts of wares in a large ship, which you perhaps saw lying in fragments at the whale's mouth. Well, as far as Sicily we had a favorable voyage, but there a tempest fell upon us and drove us three days out to sea, where we fell in with the whale and were swallowed bodily. We two alone were saved; all the others perished. We buried our comrades and built the temple to Poseidon, and then we fell into our present mode of life, tilling our kitchen-garden, and eating fish and fruits. The forest, as you see, is extensive, and there are actually quantities of grapes in it, which make the sweetest wine. The spring, too, which perhaps you know, gives very clear and cold water. We make our bed of leaves; we have no lack of fire; we capture the birds that fly in; we take alive the fish that find their way into the monster's gills; and there, too, we bathe when we wish. There is a salt lake, also, not far off, more than two miles in circumference, stocked with fish of all sorts. There we swim and sail, too, in a small skiff that I built myself. This is the twenty-seventh year since we were swallowed.
As far as these things go, our life was perhaps tolerable; but our neighbors, the people who live near us, are extremely rough and violent, for they are savages
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who have never had commerce with civilization." "What!" said I, "are there, then, still other men in the whale ?" "Numbers of them," said he, "inhospitable and barbarous in their manners. The western territory towards the tail is inhabited by the Driedherring folk, an eel-eyed, lobster-faced race, warlike, fierce, and eaters of raw flesh. On the other side, towards the right, are the Triton-weasels, who are like men above but like weasels below. However, they are less unruly than the others. On the left are the Crabclaws and the Tunnyheads, who have made a friendly alliance between themselves. The country between is inhabited by the Crayfish and the Skaitfeet, a warlike race and very swift in running. The eastern part towards the mouth consists of waste deserts washed by the sea. But this region I hold, paying the Skaitfeet a yearly tribute of five hundred oysters.
Such is the nature of the country; it is for you to see to it that we may be able to hold our own in war with so many tribes and get our living." "What are their numbers in all ?" said I. "More than a thousand," he replied. "And what arms have they?" "None," said he, "except fish-bones." "Very well, then," I said; "it would be best to engage them in battle, for they are unarmed and
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we are armed. If we overcome them we shall dwell without fear of molestation for the future." This course was determined on, and we went back to the ship and made ourselves ready. The day for paying the tribute was at hand, and we were going to make a refusal to pay it the ground of war. Sure enough, the savages sent messengers to demand the tribute, but our friends answered them scornfully and chased them away. The Skaitfeet and the Crayfish were the first to advance, furious with Skintharos-for that was his name—and making a great noise.
But we had suspected their attack, and awaited them fully armed, having sent forward an ambuscade of twenty-five men. The order given to the men in ambush was that when they perceived the enemy had passed by they should spring out, and this is what they did. Springing out, they fell upon them from the rear; and we ourselves, who were also twenty-five in number (for Skintharos and his son fought with us), met them in front and joined battle, fighting desperately with might and main ; and finally we put them to flight and chased them to their caves. The enemy lost one hundred and seventy men; we lost one, and the pilot was wounded in the back with the rib of a mullet.
That day and night we encamped on the battle-field, and raised a trophy by fixing the dried spine of a dolphin upright. But the next day all
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the others who had learned what was going on presented themselves. The Dried-herrings were on the right wing, with Pelamos in command, the Tunnyheads were on the left, and the Crab-claws occupied the centre. The Triton-weasels remained neutral, not choosing to join either side. We took the initiative, advanced to meet them, and engaged with a great shout close by the temple of Poseidon. The hollow chamber echoed our cry as if it had been a cavern. We routed them, unarmed as they were, and chasing them into the depths of the forest, made ourselves masters of the rest of the country.
Soon after they sent messengers, who gathered up their dead and discussed an alliance; but we decided not to treat with them. On the contrary, we marched against them next day, and literally cut them to pieces, with the exception of the Triton-weasels. These, when they saw what had happened, rushed out through the gills and threw themselves into the sea. We marched into the country, stripped already of enemies, and dwelt securely thereafter, instituting exercises of various sorts and hunting; and we cultivated the vines, and gathered the fruits from the trees, and were in every respect like well-fed prisoners left at large in a great prison, from which escape was impossible. We lived in this fashion for a year and eight months;
but on the fifth day of the ninth month
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I rose at about the second yawning of the whale -for he opened his mouth once in every hour, so that we reckoned our time by it—well, about the second yawning, as I said, a sudden great uproar was heard, and what sounded like the commands of officers and the rhythmic cry of rowers. Startled, as you may suppose, we crept up to the very mouth of the monster, and standing inside the teeth, we beheld the most amazing sight I ever saw-namely, giants a hundred yards tall, sailing towards one another on huge islands as if they were triremes. Now I know that what I am going to recount will seem highly incredible, nevertheless I shall tell it. The islands were long, but not particularly high, and each was as much as twelve miles in circumference. About twenty-eight of the giants sailed on each, part of them seated in order on either side, and rowing with great pine-treesbranches, leaves and all—for oars. Aft, as if on the poop, stood the pilot on a high hill, handling a bronze rudder five hundred yards long. At the prow stood as many as forty in armor, fighting. They were like men in all respects save their hair, but that was of flaming fire, so that they had no need of helmets. They had no sails, but the wind, striking against the trees, which grew in forests on each, filled them, and drove the island whithersoever the pilot wished. A boatswain
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stood over the rowers to give them their time, and the islands moved quickly at his order like so many great ships.
At first we saw only two or three islands, but afterwards as many as six hundred appeared, ranged themselves in opposition, and began a naval battle. Many dashed against each other's prows, many were run into and sunk, but some grappled and fought vigorously, and could not easily be shaken off, for the warriors at the prow showed the greatest spirit in boarding the other vessel and killing her men, but no one took a prisoner alive. Instead of grappling-irons they threw great polyps, fastened one to another. These entangled themselves in the trees and so held the island itself. Their missiles and weapons were oysters large enough to fill a cart and sponges thirty yards round.
The commander on one side was Fleet-foot, on the other Sea-Drinker. The cause of the battle appeared to be a dispute about plunder, for Sea-Drinker was said to have driven off many herds of dolphins belonging to Fleetfoot, as we could hear from what they shouted to one another, and in the same way we learned the names of the kings. Finally, Fleet-foot and his party were victorious, and they sank about a hundred and fifty of the enemy's islands and captured three more with their crews, but the others backed water and
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fled. The victors gave chase for a while, but when evening had fallen they returned to where the débris floated, took possession of most of the enemies' belongings and recovered their own; for not less than eighty of their own islands had sunk. They also raised a trophy in honor of the victory on the whale's head, by setting one of the enemy's islands on a post. That night they encamped round the whale, floating close by, having fastened their hawsers and anchors to him, for they had anchors, too-large ones made of glass and very strong. The next day they sacrificed on the whale, buried their comrades on him, and sailed off rejoicing and apparently singing a song of victory. Such are the details of the island engagement.