When we were inside, it
was dark at first, and we could not see anything,
but afterwards, when he opened his mouth, we saw
a great cavity, flat all over and high, and large
enough for the housing of a great city. In it
there were fish, large and small, and many other
creatures all mangled, ships’ rigging and anchors,
human bones, and merchandise. In the middle
there was land with hills on it, which to my thinking
was formed of the mud that he had swallowed.
Indeed, a forest of all kinds of trees had grown on
it, garden stuff had come up, and_ everything
appeared to be under cultivation. The coast of the
island was twenty-seven miles long. Sea-birds were
to be seen nesting on the trees, gulls and kingfishers.
 This story of the whale is no longer considered a parody
on Jonah’s adventure, as there were other versions of the
tale afloat in antiquity. 

 


At first we shed tears for a long time, and then
I roused my comrades and we provided for the ship
by shoring it up and for ourselves by rubbing sticks
together, lighting a fire and getting dinner as best
we could. We had at hand plenty of fish’ of all
kinds, and we still had the water from the Morning
Star. On rising the next day, whenever the whale
opened his mouth we saw mountains one moment,
nothing but sky the next, and islands frequently,
and we perceived by this that he was rushing swiftly
to all parts of the sea. When at Jength we became



 

wonted to our abiding-place, I took seven of my
comrades and went into the forest, wishing to have
a look at everything. I had not yet gone quite five
furlongs when I found a temple of Poseidon, as the
inscription indicated, and not far from it a number
of graves with stones on them. Near by was a
spring of clear water. We also heard the barking of
a dog, smoke appeared in the distance, and we made
out something like a farmhouse, too.

 


Advancing eagerly, we came upon an old man
and a boy very busily at work in a garden which
they were irrigating with water from the spring.
Joyful and fearful at the same instant, we stopped
still, and they too, probably feeling the same as
we, stood there without a word. In course of time
the old man said: “Who are you, strangers? Are
you sea-gods, or only unlucky men like us? As for
ourselves, though we are men and were bred on land,
we have become sea-creatures and swim about with
this beast which encompasses us, not even knowing for certain what our condition is—we suppose
that we are dead, but trust that we are alive.”
To this I replied: “We too are men, my good
sir—newcomers, who were swallowed up yesterday,
ship and all: and we set out just now with the
notion of finding out how things were in the forest,
for it appeared to be very large and thick. But
some divinity, it seems, brought us to see you and
to discover that we are not the only people shut up
in this animal. Do tell us your adventures—who
you are and how you got in here.” But he said he
would neither tell us nor question us before giving.
us what entertainment he could command, and he


 

took us with him to the house. It was a commodious structure, had bunks built in it and was fully
furnished in other ways. He set before us vegetables,
fruit and fish and poured us out wine as well.
When we had had enough, he asked us what had
happened to us.” I told him about everything from
first to last—the storm, the island, the cruise in the
air, the war and all the rest of it up to our descent
into the whale.

 

He expressed huge wonder, and then told us his
own story, saying: “By birth, strangers, I am a
Cypriote. Setting out from my native land on a
trading venture with my boy whom you see and with
many servants besides, I began a voyage to Italy,
bringing various wares on a great ship, which you
no doubt saw wrecked in the mouth of the whale.
As far as Sicily we had a fortunate voyage, but
there we were caught by a violent wind and driven
out into the ocean for three days, where we fell in
with the whale, were swallowed up crew and all,
and only we two survived, the others being killed.
We buried our comrades, built a temple to Poseidon
and live this sort of life, raising vegetables and
eating fish and nuts. As you see, the forest is
extensive; and besides, it contains many grape-vines,
which yield the sweetest of wine. No doubt you
noticed the spring of beautiful cold water, too. g We
make our bed of leaves, burn all the wood we want,
snare the birds that fly in, and catch fresh fish by
going into the gills of the animal. We also bathe
there when we care to. Another thing, there is a


 

Jake not far off, twenty furlongs in circumference,
with all kinds of fish in it, where we swim and sail
in a little skiff that I made. It is now twenty-seven
years since we were swallowed.

 

Everything else is
perhaps endurable, but our neighbours and fellow-countrymen are extremely quarrelsome and unpleasant, being unsociable and savage.” ‘ What!” said I,
“are there other people in the whale, too?” “Why,
yes, lots of them,” said he; “they are unfriendly
and are oddly’ built. In the western part of the
forest, the tail part, live the Broilers, an eel-eyed,
lobster-faced people that are warlike and bold, and
carnivorous. On one side, by the starboard wall,
live the Mergoats,
 According to Herodotus (2, 46), uévdns was Egyptian for
goat; but there is nothing goatish in the Tritonomendetes as
Lucian describes them. 
like men above and catfish below:
they are not so wicked as the others. To port
there are the Crabclaws and the Codheads, who are
friends and allies with each other. The interior
is inhabited by Clan Crawfish and the Solefeet, good
fighters and swift runners. The eastern part, that
near the mouth, is mostly uninhabited, as it is
subject to inundations of the sea. I live in it,
however, paying the Solefeet a tribute of five
hundred oysters a year.