A large
looking-glass is fixed above a well, which is not very
deep. If a man goes down into the well, he hears
everything that is said among us on earth, and if he
looks into the looking-glass he sees every city and
every country just as if he were standing over it.
When I tried it I saw my family and my whole
native land, but I cannot go further and say for
certain whether they also saw me. Anyone who
does not believe ‘this is so will find, if ever he gets
there himself, that I am telling the truth.
 

To go back to my story, we embraced the king and
his friends, went aboard, and put off. Endymion even
gave me presents—two of the glass tunics, five of
bronze, and a suit of lupine armour—but I left them
all behind in the whale. He also sent a thousand
Vulture Dragoons with us to escort us for sixty miles.

 

On our way ‘we passed many countries and put
in at the Morning Star, which was just being
colonised. We landed there and procured water.
Going aboard and making for the zodiac, we passed
the sun to port, hugging the shore. We did not
land, though many of my comrades wanted to; for
the wind was unfavourable. But we saw that the
country was green and fertile and well-watered, and
full of untold good things. On seeing us, the Cloudcentaurs, who had entered the service of Phaethon,


 

flew up to the ship and then went away again when
they found out that the treaty protected us.

 

The
Vulture Dragoons had already left us.
Sailing the next night and day we reached Lamptown toward evening, already being on our downward way. This city lies in the air midway between
the Pleiades and the Hyades, though much lower
than the Zodiac. On landing, we did not find any
men at all, but a lot of lamps running about and
loitering in the public square and at the harbour.
Some of them were small and poor, so to speak; a
few, being great and powerful, were very splendid
and conspicuous. Each of them has his own house,
or sconce, they have names like men, and we heard -
them talking. They offered us no harm, but invited
us to be their guests. We were afraid, however,
and none of us ventured to eat a mouthful or close
an eye. They have a public building in the centre
of the city, where their magistrate sits all night and
" ealls each of them by name, and whoever does not
answer is sentenced to death for deserting. They
are executed by being put out. We were at court,
saw what went on, and heard the lamps defend
themselves and tell why they came late. There I
recognised our own lamp: I spoke to hm and
enquired how things were at home, and he told
me all about them. 
That night we stopped there, but on the next day
we set sail and continued our voyage. By this time


 

we were near the clouds. There we saw the city
of Cloudcuckootown,
 The capital of Birdland in Aristophanes’ play, The Birds. 
and wondered at it, but did
not visit it, as the wind did not permit. The king,
however, was said to be Crow Dawson. It made me
think of Aristophanes the poet, a wise and truthful man whose writings are distrusted without
reason. On the next day but one, the ocean was
already in plain sight, but no land anywhere except
the countries in the air, and they began to appear
fiery and bright. Toward noon on the fourth day
the wind fell gently and gave out, and we were
set down on the sea.

 
When we touched the water
we were marvellously pleased and happy, made as
merry as.we could in every way, and went over the
side for a swim, for by good luck it was calm and the
sea was smooth. It would seem, however, that a change for the
better often proves a prelude to greater ills. We
had sailed just two days in fair weather and the third
day was breaking when toward sunrise we suddenly
saw a number of sea-monsters, whales. One among
them, the largest of all, was fully one hundred and
fifty miles long. He came at us with open mouth,
dashing up the sea far in advance, foam-washed,
showing teeth much larger than the emblems of
Dionysus in our country,
 On the size of these, see Lucian’s Syrian Goddess, 28. and all sharp as calthrops
and white as ivory. We said good-bye to one
another, embraced, and waited. He was there in an




 

instant, and with a gulp swallowed us down, ship
and all. He just missed crushing us with his teeth,
but the boat slipped through the gaps between
them into the interior.