Les aventures du Capitaine Magon. English

  CHAPTER VII.

  CHRYSEIS PREFERS HANNO TO A KING.

  I lost no time in setting our men to work to restore all damages. Thecargo had been too well packed to sustain any material injury, and Ihad a selection from various bales of merchandise carried out into afield and displayed under the shade of a clump of trees. I took Jonahlikewise on shore, bidding him bring his trumpet. No sooner did hefeel the dry ground beneath his feet, than he began to yell and tojump for joy.

  "Out of reach here, of the jaws of Leviathan!" he roaredtriumphantly. "Now I am safe. Here on dry land I care not what monsterI face; and the sooner the better!"

  I put a check, in some degree, upon his excitement, by ordering himto take his trumpet and to sound it as loud as he could; and thenoise he made had the effect not only of summoning the residents ofthe neighbouring village, but of collecting a considerable numberof the shepherds who were pasturing their flocks upon the adjacenthills. Assured of our peaceful intentions, they all flocked to uswith perfect confidence, raising as they came the cry of "Pheaces!Pheaces!" as an intimation to their companions that some Phœnicianmerchants had arrived.

  The people were all Dorians; tall, well-built men, with faircomplexions, straight noses, and dark curly hair clustering overlofty foreheads. Nearly all of them came quite unarmed. Some of themwere attired in old kitonets, evidently of Phœnician production;others wore a tasteless imitation of the same, made of coarse clothof their own manufacture. For the most part they were bare-headed,the exceptions being the few who wore a kind of flat hat of plaitedstraw. There were some women of the party, and these well-nigh allwere much to be admired in face and form; they were attired in longplain dresses, almost as simple as sacks, with openings at the seamsto allow the head and arms to pass through; but these were coveredby short open bodices, coming just below the waist, and becominglyslashed on either side. No jewellery nor any ornament whatever was tobe seen about their persons.

 

  Before my visitors arrived, I took the precaution of making anenclosure for my merchandise by driving some strong upright stakesinto the ground and running a rope along from one to another, andtold Hanno to make the natives understand that they could not beallowed to pass the rope. They readily understood him, and appearedto be altogether very intelligent, although somewhat reserved intheir manner.

  One of their number, who carried a long copper-headed staff and worea cloth band round his head, acted as spokesman. He was evidently asort of chief, and his companions waited in silence while we listenedto what he said. The Dorians appear to be addicted to long speeches,and the chief stepped forward, and scarcely raising his eyes, madeus a formal harangue. Hanno interpreted sufficiently well to enableme thoroughly to comprehend the purport of his speech. He began bybidding us welcome, and proceeded to pay us a variety of compliments,addressing us as demi-gods, calling us kinsmen of the tutelarydeities of our ships, and concluded by asking that he and his peoplemight be allowed to inspect the wonderful commodities that we hadbrought from the divine city of Sidon.

  I was already aware that all the tribes that bear in common the nameof Hellenes are accustomed to regard the Phœnicians as being ofdivine origin. The magnitude of our ships, the length of our voyages,the mysterious remoteness of our cities, all combine to confirm themin their belief, and it was not for our advantage at present toundeceive them; the time would come when they would be brought intocloser relationship with our colonies, and they would find out byexperience that we were ordinary mortals like themselves. Meanwhilethey regarded us as superior beings, and listened with eagerattention to whatever tales we pleased to pour into their ears.

  By my instructions, Hanno informed the chief that we had broughtwith us many strange things from Caucasus, the land of giants; fromCilicia, where the mountains are the open mouths of the infernalworld and spit out flames of fire; from Sidon, the metropolis ofthe gods; from Arabia, the land of the devout, where men live forthree centuries and more; and from Egypt, where there are bull-gods,crocodiles, and serpents two stadia long. I made him understand thatif his people could bring us ox-hides, Chalcidian copper, woven wool,or goats' horns, we, in exchange, could give them coats, glassbeads, perfumes, nectar, or nearly anything they liked to ask for;and without delay, he despatched a number of the men back to thevillage, to procure such goods as we required.

  "What awful lies!" said Chamai to me, aside, "didn't you tell themthat the Midianites are a devout race? And didn't you say that thechildren of Ishmael live three hundred years? And did I hear arightthat you should say there are gods in Egypt?"

  I only smiled at this outburst of indignation; but Himilco laughedaloud and said:

  "Never mind, Chamai; there may be worse lies than these; they willanswer their purpose if they make these folks good buyers."

  The chief had offered to sell me some _pilegech_, or young femaleslaves that he had captured in a recent raid upon the mainland; but Ideclined to make any purchase of the kind, knowing that there was nomarket for women-slaves either in our Libyan colonies or in Tarshish.Our word "pilegech" he pronounced _pellex_. The Dorians manifestlyhave considerable difficulty in articulating our language; forexample, they say "kiton," for _kitonet_; "kephos," for _koph_, and"kassiteros," for _kastira_. Sometimes, like other savage nations,they fail to understand the true meaning of a word, and pervert italtogether; for instance, when speaking of the great sea beyondGades, instead of calling it the Sea of Og, they describe it as ariver named "Oceanos," and believe it to be a god.

  The men that had been sent back by the chief soon returned with avery fair supply of good copper, ox-hides, and goats' horns, someof which were large enough to make good bows. They likewise broughtsome very excellent woollen cloth which they had themselves importedfrom the mainland. For all their goods the prices they demanded weresingularly moderate.

  It was now necessary, in order to find space and leisure forrepairing our ships, that the throng of buyers, which seemedcontinually increasing, should be drawn away from the neighbourhoodof the beach. To effect this, I placed a quantity of the merchandiseunder the charge of Hadlai, one of the most trustworthy of thesailors, and sent him into the interior of the island to disposeof what he could, instructing him to be sure and return to us ineight-and-forty hours, by which time I expected to complete therepairs. Bichri volunteered to act as an escort; and Jonah, withwhose trumpet the Dorians seemed immensely amused, was sent to summonthe natives to the sale.

  In the course of the day I sent eight of my men to cut down anoak from the forest on the valley side, to make a new yard forthe _Dagon_. The Dorians permitted us to take whatever wood wewanted without any charge, deeming it a sufficient compensation tothemselves to watch our carpentering, and to listen to the wonderfultales of such of our sailors as could speak anything of theirlanguage. They were most attentive in bringing us firewood, water,and what else we wanted; and whatever they may be in their bearing toother nations, I can testify that to us Phœnicians they were mostcourteous and considerate.

  The Dorians plied Chryseis with countless questions about the_Pheakes_, and made all kinds of inquiries about their country, theircities and their king; and she, pleased with the sound of a dialectkindred to her own, conversed with them willingly, and made themstare with surprise, as she recounted the glories of our temples,and the magnificence of our palaces. They had no clear idea of whatPhœnicia really was, but imagined it to be an island, evidentlyconfounding it with our colony of Chittim, or with our settlement atChalcis, which was considerably nearer to them. They almost seem tothink Phœnicians ubiquitous, for they give the name of Phœniciato the coast of Caria, where our merchants have established somemarts. This is really the country of the Carian Leleges, who,together with the Phrygians, were the Dorians' predecessors inthe isle of Crete, and the first to drive the Cydonians to thehighlands. The Dorians assert that the Leleges and Pelasgianspreceded them on the mainland, and that many of them still remain.I can readily understand that the Carians, Æolians, and others,whom we drove
from their own coasts, succeeded in reaching Crete;for the Carians were not ignorant of navigation, and at that partof the Archipelago, where the sea is thickly studded with islands,the voyage from the coast of Asia hither, even in small boats, wouldbe by no means difficult. It is a fact, too, that the principalmountain in Crete is known by the Pelasgo-Ionian name of Ida, thesame as that borne by the mountain in Æolia, opposite the island ofMitylene; the evidence, therefore, is very strong that the Pelasgiansand Leleges, who were of the same race as the Carians, Æolians,Lycians, and Dardanians, must have occupied not only the entire coastfrom the Straits of Thrace down to the regions opposite Rhodes, butlikewise all the mainland and islands between Thrace and Cape Malea.The Cydonians must be a remnant of some still earlier inhabitants ofquite another race, driven back, first by the Pelasgians and Leleges,and afterwards by the Dorians, Ionians, and those others who are nowadvancing to establish themselves alike upon the coast and in theislands. The accuracy of this conclusion is borne out by the factthat our ancestors were acquainted with the Pelasgians long beforethey knew anything of Dorians and Ionians, and it is well knownthat there are still in existence cities large and populous, thoughbadly built and weakly fortified, such as Plakir and Sculake in thePropontis, some distance north of Dardania and the isle of Tenedos.

  I enter into all these details because I consider it part of the dutyof a Phœnician mariner to make himself acquainted not only withthe configuration of both land and sea, the movements of the heavenlybodies, and the laws of navigation and of commerce, but also with theorigin, language, religion, and habits of every nation with whom hemay be brought in contact; and my experience in my naval life hastaught me that although the knowledge thus acquired is to be verycautiously revealed to strangers and foreigners, yet it cannot be toofreely disseminated amongst one's own countrymen.

  The Dorians acknowledge themselves to be a people akin to theIonians, and are, like them, a branch of the great family knownby the name of Hellenes, Ræci, or Græci. These Hellenes, like thechildren of Israel, are comprised of twelve peoples or tribes;the Thessalians, the Bœotians, the Dorians, the Ionians, thePerrhebians, the Magnetes, the Locrians, the Eteans, the Achæans,the Phocians, the Dolopes, and the Malians. Their own account ofthemselves is, that on reaching the south of Thracia they settledin the district known as Hellopia, of which they were still inpossession, and whence they spread themselves over the peninsula andthe islands. Hellopia is the country traversed by the River Achelous,which empties itself into the channel that divides the island ofCephallenia from the mainland. The two oldest cities in Hellopia areDodona and Delphi, which are both the abodes of the chief gods. It isfrom the name of their city that the Hellenes are sometimes calledDodonians, although they are far more frequently referred to by us asthe Ionians, or sons of Ion or Javan. Amongst themselves, however,they are invariably designated Hellenes, Graii, or Græci.

  All the Hellenic tribes recognise four special bonds of fraternity:first, they are of one common origin; secondly, they speak a commontongue; thirdly, they worship the same gods, and in the same modesand places; and fourthly, they cultivate a general uniformity inmanners and disposition. They all send representative chiefs orelders to Dodona, and I presume to Delphi also, for the purpose ofsettling any common difference; and there they take a threefold oath,never to destroy any city that has ever been admitted into covenantwith them; never to intercept the supply of water to any city oftheir fraternity, and always to unite to punish those who shouldviolate their pledge.

  Their principal god dwells at Dodona, and is named Zeus. They believehim to be the same as the Zeus of the Leleges and Pelasgians,whom the Curetes of Crete honour with songs and dances. Like BaalChamaim, he is the god of the air and sky, and son of the heaven andthe earth. He it was who, in the form of a bull, carried off thePhrygian goddess Europa to Crete; and on the south of the island, inthe valley of a little river, Lethe, the Dorians have a city whichI have never seen, but which they call Hellotis, where there is aplane-tree, under which Zeus and Europa are said to have reposed.Another town there is in the island, named Cnossus, founded, Ibelieve, by the Phrygians, where Zeus has one of his places of abode.

  Another deity, almost equally powerful, is Apollo, the archer andsoothsayer. He is known as the Pythian prophet, and dwells at Delphi,where he is consulted about future events. He is held in especialveneration by the Dorians, whom he is said, under the form of adolphin, to have conducted across the seas. Probably he may be thesame as our Phœnician archer-god, Baal Chillekh, whom we haveourselves taught the Hellenes to worship, and it may be that becausehe taught them navigation, they represent him as a dolphin.

  The mysterious Hermes, the god of the hidden forces of nature, islikewise an object of their high regard. It is not unlikely that theylearnt his worship from the Egyptians; but whether it be so or not,it is quite certain that he has been known amongst them from a veryremote antiquity.

  The Cydonians have made them acquainted with Artemis, and we areourselves leading them to the knowledge of Ashtoreth or Astarte,whom they are gradually learning to venerate above all their otherdivinities.

  Of Beelzebub, Baal-Peor, El Adonai, Chemosh, or the Cabiri, theHellenes know nothing. They are absolutely ignorant of the positionof the Cabiri, and have no conception of guiding their course insailing by the seventh Cabiros or Pole-star: to say the truth, theyare very cowardly sailors, rarely venturing to lose sight of theshore. Their boats are large but very badly built, having no decks,ill-contrived rigging, and very defective arrangements for ballast;consequently they are equally unsteady whether they are impelled byoars or worked by sails. The people have little idea of distance;they are profoundly ignorant of the shape of the country, and are atonce deterred from a voyage by the least stress of weather, or by themost insignificant current.

  The towns are built in places that are difficult of access, and arerudely fortified with piles of uncemented stones. The houses aremade either of rough stone, or of bricks that have been baked in thesun, and are very little better than cabins. The people are not atall skilful in any handicraft; and they can scarcely do more thanmanufacture their copper lance-heads, hatchets, breast-plates, andhelmets, which, although very ill-formed, are covered with ornaments.They have no cavalry and very few archers, and rarely use swords infighting; lances are their favourite weapons, and these are used bytheir chiefs either on foot or from the top of their chariots. Inclose combat they employ a kind of poignard, which very frequentlyis seen curved at the point into a kind of hook. By way of pastime,Hannibal and Chamai occasionally made Hanno practise with the sword,and on these occasions they would be surrounded by a group ofDorians, who were struck with wonder and admiration at the varietyof the thrusts, passes, and parries of the fencing, as exhibited inthe different practices of the Chaldeans, the Philistines, and theIsraelites, and the dexterity they all alike required.

  The shields which they use are round, and made of ox-hide, those ofthe chiefs being faced with copper and ornamented with paintings.Before we left the island, the Dorian king of Hellotis came tovisit us, and for one of our bucklers of wrought bronze offeredme five-and-twenty oxen; but I allowed him to have it for someagates, to be used in making jewellery, and for an enormous pair ofboar's tusks which he had brought from the mainland, and which nowadorn the temple of Ashtoreth at Sidon.

  On the third day after our arrival in the island, one of the sailors,who had been struck by an arrow in the Egyptian engagement, died,the wound having gangrened. According to our national custom, I hadall the ships hung with black, and made inquiry of the natives forsome cavern in the neighbourhood where we could inter the body. Theyshowed me a cave in the mountain side about thirty stadia distant,and were quite ready in any way to assist me, as they are themselvesvery careful about the burial of their dead; in fact, there isnothing of which they entertain a greater dread than of beingdeprived of funeral rites, and this is one great reason that detersthem from venturing out far to sea.

  BORNE TO ITS RESTING-PLACE.
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  After the corpse had been washed, it was borne to its resting-place,a considerable crowd of Dorians following in the rear, amongst them alarge proportion of women, who kept up loud cries of lamentation. Thecave in which we laid the body was very deep, but by no means lofty;in it we left not only the body, but the planks and the two oarswhich had formed the bier. When the opening had been closed by pilingup a heap of large and heavy stones, Hanno, in a solemn voice, madean invocation to Menath, Hokh, and Rhadamath, the judges of the soulsin Cheol.

  All these three gods of our nation are known to the Dorians, whocall them by the names of Minos, Eacus, and Rhadamanthus. Theybelieve that Minos, previous to his appointment as a judge in theinfernal regions, was a king of Crete, and that, being a skilfulnavigator, he had sailed as far as the mainland to the Ionians, who,by way of tribute, gave him a number of boys and girls. With regardto Rhadamanthus, they suppose that he was brought to the island ofChalcis by the Phœnician demi-gods; but the truth is, that theyhave made some strange confusion between the god himself and theSidonian sailors through whom they had become acquainted with hisexistence. In the same way, I believe, that Europa (the goddess whowas carried off by Zeus) and Ariadne (known first to one of thedemi-gods, and then to Dionysus, the god of rivers) are nothing morethan other names for Ashtoreth, surviving from the period when thePhœnicians first imported wine to their shores. From us, too, theyhave derived their knowledge of Khousor Phtah, the god of the forge,whom they call Phtos or Phaistos; and in short, whatever familiaritythey have either with literature, wine, or with the use of metals,all seems to have been derived from the Sidonians. As for our ownknowledge, that (according to our ancestors long, long ago) wasobtained from the Egyptians, and the Egyptians derived theirs fromthe still more ancient Atlantes, who, when the Great Sea was stillto the south of Libya, came from lands in the West that have sincepassed away, traversing Ethiopia in their course. How true it is,that though nation may follow upon nation, the gods are immortal!

  The Dorian people gave us their word of honour that the cavern inwhich we had buried our companion should never be desecrated, andwe returned to our ships, which remained hung with black for theremainder of the day.

  Towards evening Hadlai and his party made their appearance,bringing a goodly supply of purchases. Jonah, marching along with aconsequential air, and encircled by a crowd who had followed him downfrom the mountains was carrying a calf upon his back.

  "What are you going to do with that calf?" I asked.

  "Eat it," he said; "I have earned it."

  "How? by blowing your trumpet?"

  "No; not by blowing my trumpet, but by wrestling: they matched theirstrongest against me, and I levelled them all; and so I won my calf.A capital country is this! I will knock them over, every one, if onlythey will give me a calf every time."

  And, catching sight of the King of the Dorians, who had come with aherd of oxen, he shouted to him:

  "Yes, you too; give me a bullock, and I will knock you down. Give metwo, and I will break every bone in your skin."

  "Silence, fool!" I cried, hoping to bring him to his senses. The Kingdid not understand Phœnician, and asked what the man was saying;but I did not think it necessary to enlighten him.

  Jonah continued muttering and grumbling to himself: "Why should Inot fight them, if they like it? If I were to challenge a man of thetribe of Dan or Judah, I should soon find a knife in my ribs! Buthere they like it, and give me a calf. Fine country this!"

  That evening the wind blew briskly from the north-north-west, but notwith violence enough to make us hesitate about taking our departurenext morning. The Dorians were full of surprise at our determinationto put to sea, and owned that nothing would induce them to face theperil of such a wind.

  "Can it really be," asked one of the chiefs, "that you intend tostart upon your voyage with this gale in your very teeth?"

  Upon my assuring him that I had fully made up my mind, he continued:

  "And that, too, with the recollection so fresh of the terrific stormin which you came? Truly, you are demi-gods indeed!"

  "Aye, yes," I said; "children of Ashtoreth we are; and we rode theseas that night in a way that was worthy of our fame!"

  "And were not the Cabiri considerate for me?" interposed Himilco;"the salt sea made me thirsty, and they sent me a goat-skin full ofluscious wine."

  Without noticing him, the chief continued:

  "Assuredly the Phœnician deities maintain a careful watch to guardtheir children. I shall not soon forget how I saw their mightychariot roll above the waves to your assistance."

  It was now Himilco's turn to look astonished.

  "Chariot upon the waters!" he exclaimed; "what was it like?"

  "It was high, and round, and parti-coloured, and had greatsea-monsters drawing it over the raging sea."

  He spoke with a kind of awe; but it struck me that he might perchancehave seen Bodmilcar's gaoul, and that the lightning's glare had givenit the variegated effect which he had noticed. I suggested this, inan undertone, to Himilco, who only said:

  "If Bodmilcar were the sea-god, I should like to have the chance ofgetting into the sea-god's chariot and ringing the sea-god's neck."

  While we had been talking, I had observed Hamilcar and several othersclosely scrutinising something that the waves had cast upon thebeach. Curious to see what was interesting them, I joined them, andfound some fragments of a ship.

  "This is no Phœnician work," said Hamilcar, pointing to a boltstill hanging to one of the planks.

  "No," I agreed; "and from the thickness of the wood, and from thebolts being driven in without wedges, I have no doubt that it is anEgyptian craft that has been wrecked."

  "Look here!" cried Himilco; "here is proof positive; the goose's neckfrom the prow!"

  "It may be," I said, "that some Egyptians accompanied Bodmilcar, andhave come to grief in the tempest."

  "I hope Bodmilcar has not shared their fate," said Gisgo; "drowningis too good for him; I want him to have a stout rope round his neck.And besides, the rascal has three-quarters of our merchandise that Ishould like to get back."

  "Rather too much to expect, I am afraid," I said; "however, we mustnow embark. We are bound for Sicily where perhaps you may recoveryour lost ears."

  A grim smile passed over the old pilot's face.

  "Until the wind changes," I observed, "we shall have to keep ontacking;" and I moved towards the ships.

  At this moment the Dorian King approached me with the air of havingsomething important to communicate; he broke out abruptly:

  "You are a Phœnician, a ruler of the sea: I am a Dorian prince, aruler of my people: so far we are equal. These oxen, these horses,these chariots are all mine; from my thirty villages I can summontwelve thousand men. I am favoured of the gods. I am mighty."

  I thought he surely was about to make some demand, but a singleglance satisfied me that he was not in a position to exact anythingby force; not only were Hanno, Chamai, Bichri and Jonah still onshore, but Hannibal, too, was close at hand, supported by forty ofhis men, while the King was attended only by about a score and a halfof lancers. I made no reply, but waited for him to proceed.

  "Ruler of the Phœnicians," he said, "I want you to sell me yourpilegech Chryseis: you have only to name your own price for theIonian, and that price is yours."

  Hanno made a start forward, but I held him back.

  "King of the Dorians!" I said, "Chryseis is not designed for sale.However, she is free to answer for herself. To us your kindness andcourtesy have been great; and I am ready to consent, in return, togive the maiden up to you. But this one condition must be fixed; shemust become yours by her own free choice."

  Hanno glanced eagerly at Chryseis, and imploringly at me.

  The King advanced to where the girl was standing, and proffering hishand, said:

  "Daughter of the Helli! kinswoman of our tribe! come and be the Queenof the Dorians of Hellotis!"

  She stood with her eyes
fastened on the ground, but made no reply.

  "Zeus and Apollo guide your choice!" continued the King, "and inspireyour answer! Listen and consent. No Dorian maid has ever yet madegood her hold upon my heart, although there is not one who would notbe proud to be the object of my choice. Honours and luxury await mybride. She shall have slaves to surround her, and do her weaving, andobey her slightest wish; her table shall be spread with the choicestdiet, the produce of three hundred goats and fifty cows; and her homeshall be full of all the comforts that wealth can buy."

  He waited for her to speak, but still she made no sign.

  "My house," he went on to plead, "is a house of stone, like theEgyptians', and stored up within it, Chryseis, there are chests, inwhich are necklaces, and pearls, and golden bodkins for your hair.All shall be yours, and you shall be first and noblest of all thewomen in Crete."

  Chryseis slowly raised her eyes from the ground, and laying her handupon Hanno's shoulder, in a firm, deliberate, and yet gentle voice,said:

  "Our holy Zeus has given me to Hanno, and with Hanno I shall remain."

  The Dorian, mortified and excited, literally stamped with rage.

  "What!" he cried, "prefer a Phœnician subject to a king of theHellenes?"

  "A Sidonian scribe," said Hanno, "is the equal of any king on earth.I own no superior except my captain and the gods above."

  "Though he were the lowliest sailor in the service," declaredChryseis, "my heart is his. His goddess Ashtoreth has delivered me inthe hour of peril, and Zeus, my god, pronounces that I am his."

  The Dorian could do no more: in vain he pointed to the smilingmeadows and the shady forests of the island, and contrasted them withthe abode upon the raging water of an angry sea; Chryseis maintainedthat the water had charms as many as the land. Unable to prevail withher, he made a final appeal to me; but finding me firm in my resolveto leave the girl unfettered in her choice, he gave a growl ofanger, and without turning his head, remounted his chariot and droverapidly away.

  "Mine, henceforth," said Hanno to Chryseis, as he led her to theship. "You are as a priestess of Ashtoreth, the guardian of us all!"and he drew her closer to his side.

  The sail was soon hoisted, and the rowers settled to their seats.Leaving the shore, we made long tacks to get to windward, and in fivehours had passed the northernmost extremity of Crete. In the courseof the night we were coasting the rocky land upon the north of thelesser Cythera.

  Two days' safe, though tedious, navigation brought us to the mouth ofthe Achelous, a stream which from the colour of its water is knownto our sailors as the White River. We passed between the fertileand indented shore of the mainland, and the islands of Cythera,Zacynthus, and Cephallenia. In these navigable waters, where land isnever out of sight, we perpetually came across Hellenic vessels ofevery size, engaged in a brisk trade not only in their own nativeproductions, but also in the manufactures of the Phœnicians.

  The sea was calm when we reached the mouth of the Achelous, but afresh breeze sprung up from the north-east, which was just what wewanted to carry us to the Sicilian straits. It is usual, in order tobreak the length of the sea-passage, to follow the Hellenic coastas far as the island of Corcyra, but under the present favourablecircumstances this would have been merely to waste time. We had anample supply both of provisions and of fresh water; I therefore quiteabandoned all thought of visiting the metropolis of the Hellenes, anddetermined to make with the wind across the open sea direct for thesouthern point of Italy. As we were passing along the channel thatdivides Cephallenia from the little island of Ithaca we fell in witha Sidonian galley and a couple of gaouls, and hailing them, we foundthat they were on their way home from the mouth of the Eridanus onthe Iapygian Sea. Bodachmon, the captain of the galley, proposed thatwe should lay-to off Ithaca, so that we might send any commissionsby him to Sidon. I availed myself of his offer, and went at once onboard one of his gaouls. His cargo consisted of a small supply ofgold, both in dust and nuggets, but principally of rock-crystal,which the people on the banks of the Eridanus obtain from those whoreside on the mountains near its source. Bodachmon agreed to takesome of my heavier merchandise for a part of his light freight, andto do anything he could to assist me after the loss we had sustainedof our own gaoul through Bodmilcar's treachery. His indignation atBodmilcar's conduct knew no bounds. Such an act of faithlessness, hesaid, had never happened within his experience; and he would takegood care that not only should it come to King Hiram's ears, but thatBodmilcar should be denounced throughout Phœnicia, so that if thetraitor should attempt to land anywhere either in Phœnicia, or inChittim, or any other of her colonies, he should be visited with thepunishment he so justly merited.

  "But now," said Bodachmon, "let us proceed to business. Whatcommodities have you to offer?"

  I answered that I had just obtained goods in Crete, for whichhe would be sure to find a ready market either in Egypt or athome--copper, ox-hides, woollen cloth, and enormous goats' horns;I told him, moreover, that if he would visit Crete for himself, hewould be able to purchase any number of young female slaves at themost reasonable rate.

  He said that he thought he should act upon my advice, and that hewas sure we should be able to make exchanges between ourselves whichwould satisfy us both. He proceeded to inquire whether I could lethim have any wine, as his own supply had been exhausted six monthsago, and that in his intercourse with the Iapyges and Umbrians he hadhad no opportunity of replenishing it.

  Our own ships were well provisioned, and I was pleased to have theopportunity of inviting him with his two mates and pilots to come onboard the _Ashtoreth_, and to partake of our fresh meat, onions,dried figs, cheese and wine. They all admired the completeness of ourarrangements; and Bodachmon made an inspection of the goods that Iproposed to barter, telling me that he should be able to pay a goodprice, if I would accept his rock-crystal.

  All of a sudden Bodachmon exclaimed: "By Ashtoreth! I think I cangive you a treat in return for your hospitality. In Corcyra I tookup one of the Hellenes, whom I promised if I could that I would landin Crete. He is an old man and nearly blind, but he seems to knowthe history of all the world; neither Sanchoniathon, nor Elhananthe Israelite, could know it better. He sings the exploits of hiscountry's gods and heroes, accompanying his singing on his lute; hehas no other means of paying his passage. You shall hear him."

  HOMER. _To face page 129._]

  The venerable bard was sent for, and was soon conducted on board. Hehad a dignified bearing, and commanded an involuntary reverence. Hislong beard was very white, and he carried in his hand a lute made oftortoise-shell. His name was Homer.

  Addressing us, he said:

  "O Pheacians! ye sea-kings, who explore the marvels of the earth! maythe divine gods protect your ships! My eyes are dim; no longer do Idiscern the meadows with their pasturing herds, nor the warriors withtheir dazzling armour; nay, scarce can I perceive the glorious beamsof day. But the Muses from their blest abode, beside the Peneus, haveendowed me with the gift of harmony and song, so that wherever I maygo, I celebrate the achievements both of gods and men."

  I handed the old man a cup of the choicest nectar, and, withinvigorated spirit, he began to sing his songs. To me their meaningwas barely intelligible; but Hanno, familiar with the Hellenictongue, was perfectly enraptured, and made the venerable minstrel apresent of his mantle, which was woven of the finest wool of Helbon,and exquisitely embroidered with flowers.

  "Never have I heard anything to be compared with this," exclaimed thescribe; "in spite of their ignorance of trade and navigation, thesepeople cannot be quite the barbarians we supposed."

  Hannibal, who had hitherto looked on in silence, now observed:

  "Once, when I was in the city of Our in Naharan, I came across anextraordinary man, of whom this wandering poet reminds me. He was anEgyptian, travelling about, and singing songs to his own lute, justlike Homer here, but he was not so old, and the remarkable thing wasthat he had an ape with him that used to mimic all the events aboutwhi
ch he sung. Now when Chryseis sings her war-songs, it is pleasantto listen, although one does not understand a word; her voice isitself a charm. But this old minstrel's songs are dull; he ought, Ithink, to have an ape with him, to act as an interpreter of what hesings."

 

  Hanno sneered contemptuously, and said:

  "Hannibal is wonderfully clever. I should fancy he could play theape's part to perfection."

  Not discerning the satire, Hannibal replied with the greatest gravity:

  "I don't know about my being more clever than any of my people fromArvad; but I think that if I could understand the old man's tongue, Icould perform for him better than an ape."