for having
squeezed him so roughly, the hero resumed his journey. He met with a
great many strange adventures, which would be well worth your hearing,
if I had leisure to narrate them as minutely as they deserve.

It was in this journey, if I mistake not, that he encountered a
prodigious giant, who was so wonderfully contrived by nature that, every
time he touched the earth, he became ten times as strong as ever he had
been before. His name was Antaeus. You may see, plainly enough, that it
was a very difficult business to fight with such a fellow; for, as often
as he got a knock-down blow, up he started again, stronger, fiercer, and
abler to use his weapons than if his enemy had let him alone. Thus, the
harder Hercules pounded the giant with his club, the further he seemed
from winning the victory. I have sometimes argued with such people, but
never fought with one. The only way in which Hercules found it possible
to finish the battle was by lifting Antaeus off his feet into the air,
and squeezing, and squeezing, and squeezing him until, finally, the
strength was quite squeezed out of his enormous body.

When this affair was finished, Hercules continued his travels, and went
to the land of Egypt, where he was taken prisoner, and would have been
put to death if he had not slain the king of the country and made his
escape. Passing through the deserts of Africa, and going as fast as he
could, he arrived at last on the shore of the great ocean. And here,
unless he could walk on the crests of the billows, it seemed as if his
journey must needs be at an end.

Nothing was before him, save the foaming, dashing, measureless ocean.
But, suddenly, as he looked toward the horizon, he saw something, a
great way off, which he had not seen the moment before. It gleamed very
brightly, almost as you may have beheld the round, golden disc of the
sun, when it rises or sets over the edge of the world. It evidently drew
nearer; for, at every instant, this wonderful object became larger and
more lustrous. At length, it had come so nigh that Hercules discovered
it to be an immense cup or bowl, made either of gold or burnished brass.
How it had got afloat upon the sea is more than I can tell you. There it
was, at all events, rolling on the tumultuous billows, which tossed it
up and down, and heaved their foamy tops against its sides, but without
ever throwing their spray over the brim.

"I have seen many giants, in my time," thought Hercule