came, driving his flocks before him, and carrying
on his back a huge load of firewood, which he cast down on the floor
with such a thunderous noise that Odysseus and his men fled in fear
and hid themselves in the darkest corners of the cave. When he had
driven his sheep inside, Polyphemus lifted from the ground a rock so
huge that two-and-twenty four-wheeled wagons could not have borne it,
and with it blocked the doorway. Then, sitting down, he milked the
ewes and bleating goats, and placed the lambs and kids each beside its
own mother.

Half of the milk he curdled and placed in wicker baskets to make into
cheeses, and the other half he left in great pails to drink when he
should have supper. When all this was done, he kindled a fire, and
when the flames had lit up the dark-walled cave he spied Odysseus and
his men.

"Strangers, who are ye?" he asked, in his great, rumbling voice.
"Whence sail ye over the watery ways? Are ye merchants? or are ye
sea-robbers who rove over the sea, risking your own lives and bringing
evil to other men?"

The sound of the giant's voice, and his hideous face filled the hearts
of the men with terror, but Odysseus made answer: "From Troy we
come, seeking our home, but driven hither by winds and waves. Men of
Agamemnon, the renowned and most mightily victorious Greek general,
are we, yet to thee we come and humbly beg for friendship."

At this the giant, who had nothing but cruelty in his heart, mocked at
Odysseus.

"Thou art a fool," said he, "and I shall not spare either thee or thy
company. But tell me where thou didst leave thy good ship? Was it near
here, or at the far end of the island?"

But Odysseus of the many counsels knew that the giant asked the
question only to bring evil on the men who stayed by the ship, and so
he answered: "My ship was broken in pieces by the storm and cast up on
the rocks on the shore, but I, with these my men, escaped from death."

Not one word said Polyphemus in reply, but sprang up, clutched hold of
two of the men, and dashed their brains out on the stone floor. Then
he cut them up, and made ready his supper, eating the two men, bones
and all, as if he had been a starving lion, and taking great draughts
of the milk from the giant pails. When his meal was done, he stretched
himself on the ground beside his sheep and goats, and slept.

In helpless horror Odysseus and his men had watched the dreadful
sight, but when the monster slept they began to m