e in caves, on
the steep heads of mountains, every man's household governed by his
own caprice, or not governed at all, their wives and children as
lawless as themselves, none caring for others, but each doing as he or
she thinks good. Ships or boats they have none, nor artificers to make
them, no trade or commerce, or wish to visit other shores; yet they
have convenient places for harbours and for shipping. Here Ulysses
with a chosen party of twelve followers landed, to explore what sort
of men dwelt there, whether hospitable and friendly to strangers, or
altogether wild and savage, for as yet no dwellers appeared in sight.

The first sign of habitation which they came to was a giant's cave
rudely fashioned, but of a size which betokened the vast proportions
of its owner, the pillars which supported it being the bodies of huge
oaks or pines, in the natural state of the tree, and all about showed
more marks of strength than skill in whoever built it. Ulysses,
entering in, admired the savage contrivances and artless structure of
the place, and longed to see the tenant of so outlandish a mansion;
but well conjecturing that gifts would have more avail in extracting
courtesy, than strength could succeed in forcing it, from such a one
as he expected to find the inhabitant, he resolved to flatter his
hospitality with a present of Greek wine, of which he had store in
twelve great vessels; so strong that no one ever drank it without an
infusion of twenty parts of water to one of wine, yet the fragrance of
it even then so delicious, that it would have vexed a man who smelled
it to abstain from tasting it; but whoever tasted it, it was able to
raise his courage to the height of heroic deeds. Taking with them a
goat-skin flaggon full of this precious liquor, they ventured into the
recesses of the cave. Here they pleased themselves a whole day with
beholding the giant's kitchen, where the flesh of sheep and goats lay
strewed, his dairy where goat-milk stood ranged in troughs and pails,
his pens where he kept his live animals; but those he had driven forth
to pasture with him when he went out in the morning. While they were
feasting their eyes with a sight of these curiosities, their ears were
suddenly deafened with a noise like the falling of a house. It was
the owner of the cave who had been abroad all day feeding his flock,
as his custom was, in the mountains, and now drove them home in the
evening from pasture. He threw down a p