ne, or like the
shapes of castles which one sees among the clouds by moonlight. But just
then a puff of wind brought down the smoke of the kitchen chimney among
them, and caused each man to smell the odor of the dish that he liked
best; and, after scenting it, they thought everything else moonshine, and
nothing real save this palace, and save the banquet that was evidently
ready to be served up in it.

So they hastened their steps towards the portal, but had not got half-way
across the wide lawn, when a pack of lions, tigers, and wolves came
bounding to meet them. The terrified mariners started back, expecting no
better fate than to be torn to pieces and devoured. To their surprise and
joy, however, these wild beasts merely capered around them, wagging their
tails, offering their heads to be stroked and patted, and behaving just
like so many well-bred house-dogs, when they wish to express their delight
at meeting their master or their master's friends. The biggest lion licked
the feet of Eurylochus; and every other lion, and every wolf and tiger,
singled out one of his two and twenty followers, whom the beast fondled as
if he loved him better than a beef-bone.

But, for all that, Eurylochus imagined that he saw something fierce and
savage in their eyes; nor would he have been surprised, at any moment, to
feel the big lion's terrible claws, or to see each of the tigers make a
deadly spring, or each wolf leap at the throat of the man whom he had
fondled. Their mildness seemed unreal, and a mere freak; but their savage
nature was as true as their teeth and claws.

Nevertheless, the men went safely across the lawn with the wild beasts
frisking about them, and doing no manner of harm; although, as they
mounted the steps of the palace, you might possibly have heard a low
growl, particularly from the wolves, as if they thought it a pity, after
all, to let the strangers pass without so much as tasting what they were
made of.

Eurylochus and his followers now passed under a lofty portal, and looked
through the open doorway into the interior of the palace. The first thing
that they saw was a spacious hall, and a fountain in the middle of it,
gushing up towards the ceiling out of a marble basin, and falling back
into it with a continual plash. The water of this fountain, as it spouted
upward, was constantly taking new shapes, not very distinctly, but plainly
enough for a nimble fancy to recognize what they were. Now it was the