finding another like it. Keep it in your hand, and smell of it

frequently after you enter the palace, and while you are
talking with the enchantress. Especially when she offers you

food, or a draught of wine out of her goblet, be careful to
fill your nostrils with the flower's fragrance. Follow these

directions, and you may defy her magic arts to change you into
a fox."

Quicksilver then gave him some further advice how to behave,
and bidding him be bold and prudent, again assured him that,

powerful as Circe was, he would have a fair prospect of coming
safely out of her enchanted palace. After listening

attentively, Ulysses thanked his good friend, and resumed his
way. But he had taken only a few steps, when, recollecting some

other questions which he wished to ask, he turned round again,
and beheld nobody on the spot where Quicksilver had stood; for

that winged cap of his, and those winged shoes, with the help
of the winged staff, had carried him quickly out of sight.

When Ulysses reached the lawn, in front of the palace, the
lions and other savage animals came bounding to meet him, and

would have fawned upon him and licked his feet. But the wise
king struck at them with his long spear, and sternly bade them

begone out of his path; for he knew that they had once been
bloodthirsty men, and would now tear him limb from limb,

instead of fawning upon him, could they do the mischief that
was in their hearts. The wild beasts yelped and glared at him,

and stood at a distance, while he ascended the palace steps.
On entering the hall, Ulysses saw the magic fountain in the

center of it. The up-gushing water had now again taken the
shape of a man in a long, white, fleecy robe, who appeared to

be making gestures of welcome. The king likewise heard the
noise of the shuttle in the loom and the sweet melody of the

beautiful woman's song, and then the pleasant voices of herself
and the four maidens talking together, with peals of merry

laughter intermixed. But Ulysses did not waste much time in
listening to the laughter or the song. He leaned his spear

against one of the pillars of the hall, and then, after
loosening his sword in the scabbard, stepped boldly forward,

and threw the folding doors wide open. The moment she beheld
his stately figure standing in the doorway, the beautiful woman

rose from the loom, and ran to meet him with a glad smile
throwing its sunshine over her face, and both her hands

extended.
"Welcome, brave stranger!" cried she. "We were expecting you."

And the nymph with the sea-green hair made a courtesy down to
the ground, and likewise bade him welcome; so did her sister

with the bodice of oaken bark, and she that sprinkled dew-drops
from her fingers' ends, and the fourth one with some oddity

which I cannot remember. And Circe, as the beautiful
enchantress was called (who had deluded so many persons that

she did not doubt of being able to delude Ulysses, not
imagining how wise he was), again addressed him:

"Your companions," said she, "have already been received into
my palace, and have enjoyed the hospitabletreatment to which

the propriety of their behavior so well entitles them. If such
be your pleasure, you shall first take some refreshment, and

then join them in the elegantapartment which they now occupy.
See, I and my maidens have been weaving their figures into this

piece of tapestry."
She pointed to the web of beautifully-woven cloth in the loom.

Circe and the four nymphs must have been very diligently at
work since the arrival of the mariners; for a great many yards

of tapestry had nw been wrought, in addition to what I before
described. In this new part, Ulysses saw his two and twenty

friends represented as sitting on cushions and canopied
thrones, greedily devouring dainties, and quaffing deep

draughts of wine. The work had not yet gone any further. O, no,
indeed. The enchantress was far too cunning to let Ulysses see

the mischief which her magic arts had since brought upon the
gormandizers.

"As for yourself, valiant sir," said Circe, "judging by the
dignity of your aspect, I take you to be nothing less than a

king. Deign to follow me, and you shall be treated as befits
your rank."

So Ulysses followed her into the oval saloon, where his two and
twenty comrades had devoured the banquet, which ended so

disastrously for themselves. But, all this while, he had held
the snow-white flower in his hand, and had constantly smelt of

it while Circe was speaking; and as he crossed the threshold of
the saloon, he took good care to inhale several long and deep

snuffs of its fragrance. Instead of two and twenty thrones,
which had before been ranged around the wall, there was now

only a single throne, in the center of the apartment. But this
was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an

emperor reposed himself upon, all made of chased gold, studded
with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft

heap of living roses, and overhung by a canopy of sunlight
which Circe knew how to weave into drapery. The enchantress

took Ulysses by the hand, and made him sit down upon this
dazzling throne. Then, clapping her hands, she summoned the

chief butler.
"Bring hither," said she, "the goblet that is set apart for

kings to drink out of. And fill it with the same delicious wine
which my royal brother, King Aetes, praised so highly, when he

last visited me with my fair daughter Medea. That good and
amiable child! Were she now here, it would delight her to see

me offering this wine to my honored guest."
But Ulysses, while the butler was gone for the wine, held the

snow-white flower to his nose.
"Is it a wholesome wine?" he asked.

At this the four maidens tittered; whereupon the enchantress
looked round at them, with an aspect of severity.

"It is the wholesomest juice that ever was squeezed out of the
grape," said she; "for, instead of disguising a man, as other

liquor is apt to do, it brings him to his true self, and shows
him as he ought to be."

The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned
into swine, or making any kind of a beast of themselves; so he

made haste to bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as
bright as gold, and which kept sparkling upward, and throwing a

sunny spray over the brim. But, delightfully as the wine
looked, it was mingled with the most potentenchantments that

Circe knew how to concoct. For every drop of the pure grape
juice there were two drops of the pure mischief; and the danger

of the thing was, that the mischief made it taste all the
better. The mere smell of the bubbles, which effervesced at the

brim, was enough to turn a man's beard into pig's bristles, or
make a lion's claws grow out of his fingers, or a fox's brush

behind him.
"Drink, my noble guest," said Circe, smiling, as she presented

him with the goblet. "You will find in this draught a solace
for all your troubles."

King Ulysses took the goblet with his right hand, while with
his left he held the snow-white flower to his nostrils, and

drew in so long a breath that his lungs were quite filled with
its pure and simple fragrance. Then, drinking off all the wine,

he looked the enchantress calmly in the face.
"Wretch," cried Circe, giving him a smart stroke with her wand,

"how dare you keep your human shape a moment longer! Take the
form of the brute whom you most resemble. If a hog, go join

your fellow-swine in the sty; if a lion, a wolf, a tiger, go
howl with the wild beasts on the lawn; if a fox, go exercise

your craft in stealing poultry. Thou hast quaffed off my wine,
and canst be man no longer."

But, such was the virtue of the snow-white flower, instead of