Such being the nature
of the country, it is for you to see how we can fight
with all these tribes and how we are to get a living.”
“How many are there of them in all?” said I.
"More than a thousand,” said he. “What sort of
weapons have they?” “Nothing but fishbones,”



 

he said. “Then our best plan,” said I, “would be
to meet them in battle, as they are unarmed and
we have arms. If we defeat them, we shall live
here in peace the rest of our days.” 
This was resolved on, and we went to the boat and
made ready. The cause of war was to be the withholding of the tribute, since the date for it had
already arrived. They sent and demanded the tax,
and he gave the messengers a contemptuous answer
and drove them off. First the Solefeet and Clan
Crawfish, incensed at Scintharus—for that was his
name—came on with a great uproar.
 

Anticipating their attack, we were waiting under arms,
having previously posted in our front a squad
of twenty-five men in ambush, who had been
dirécted to fall on the enemy when they saw that
they had gone by, and this they did. Falling on
them in the rear, they cut them down, while we
ourselves, twenty-five in number (for Scintharus and
his son were in our ranks), met them face to face
and, engaging them, ran our hazard with strength
and spirit. Finally we routed them and pursued
them clear to their dens. The slain on the side of
the enemy were one hundred and seventy; on our
side, one—the sailing-master, who was run through
the midriff with a mullet-rib.

 
That day and night
we bivouacked on the field and made a trophy
by setting up the dry spine of a dolphin. On the
following day the others, who had heard of it,
appeared, with the Broilers, led by Tom Cod, on the
right wing, the Codheads on the left, and the


 

Crabclaws in the centre. The Mergoats did not
take the field, choosing not to ally themselves with
either party. Going out to meet them, we engaged
them by the temple of Poseidon with great shouting,
and the hollow re-echoed like a cave. Routing them,
as they were light-armed, and pursuing them into the
forest, we were thenceforth masters of the land.

 


Not long afterwards they sent heralds and were
for recovering their dead and conferring about
an alliance, but we did not think it best to make
terms with them. Indeed, on the following day we
marched against them and utterly exterminated
them, all but the Mergoats, and they, when they
saw what was doing, ran off through the gills and
threw themselves into the sea. Occupying the
country, which was now clear of the enemy, we
dwelt there in peace from that time on, constantly
engaging in sports, hunting, tending vines and
gathering the fruit of the trees. In short, we
resembled men leading a life of luxury and roaming
at large m a great prison that they cannot break
out of.

 


For a year and eight months we lived in this way,
but on the fifth day of the ninth month, about the
second mouth-opening—for the whale did it once an
hour, so that we told time by the openings—about the
second opening, as I said, much shouting and commotion suddenly made itself heard, and what seemed
to be commands and oar-beats.
 Compare the description of the sea-fight between Corinth
and Corcyra in Thucydides 1. 48. 
Excitedly we crept
up to the very mouth of the animal, and standing



 

inside the teeth we saw the most unparallelled of all
the sights that ever I saw—huge men, fully half
a furlong in stature, sailing on huge islands as
on galleys. Though I know that what I am going
to recount savours of the incredible, I shall say
it nevertheless. There were islands, long but not
very high, and fully a hundred. furlongs in circumference, on each of which about a hundred and
twenty of those men were cruising, some of whom,
sitting along each side of the island one behind the
other, were rowing with huge cypress trees for oars—
branches, leaves and all!
 Herodotus (2, 156) speaks of a floating island in Egypt. 
Aft at the stern, as I
suppose you would call it, stood the master on a high
hill, holding a bronze tiller five furlongs in length.
At the bow, about forty of them under arms were
fighting; they were like men in all but their hair,
which was fire and blazed up, so that they had no
need of plumes.
 Cf. Il. 5,4; ‘ And tireless flames did burn on crest and
shield.” In lieu of sails, the wind struck the
forest, which was dense on each of the islands, filled
this and carried the island wherever the helmsman
would. There were boatswains in command, to keep
the oarsmen in time, and the islands moved swiftly
under the rowing, like war-galleys.