At first we only saw two or three, but later on
about six hundred made their appearance. Taking
sides, they went to war and had a sea-fight. Many
collided with one another bows on, and many



 

were rammed amidships and sunk. Some, grappling one another, put up a stout fight and were
slow to cast off, for those stationed at the bows
showed all zeal in boarding and slaying: no
quarter was given. Instead of iron grapnels they
threw aboard one another great devilfish with lines
belayed to them, and these gripped the woods and
held the island fast. They struck and wounded one
another with oysters that would fill a wagon and
with hundred-foot sponges.

 

The leader of one
side was Aeolocentaur, of the other, Brinedrinker.
Their battle evidently came about on account of an
act of piracy: Brinedrinker was said to have driven
off many herds of dolphins belonging to Aeolocentaur.
We knew this because we could hear them abusing
one another and calling out the names of their kings.
Finally the side of Aeolocentaur won; they sank
about a hundred and fifty of the enemy’s islands;
and took three more, crews and all; the rest backed
water and fled. After pursuing them some distance,
they turned back to the wrecks at evening, making
prizes of most of them and picking up what belonged to
themselves; for on their own side not less than eighty
islands had gone down. They also made a trophy of
the isle-fight by setting up one of the enemy’s
islands on the head of the whale. That night they
slept on shipboard around the animal, making their:
shore lines fast to him and riding at anchor just off
him; for they had anchors, large and strong, made
of glass.
 Very likely a punning reference to some traveller’s
account of wooden (ξυλίναις) anchors. 
On the following day they performed



 

sacrifice on the whale, buried their. friends on
him, and sailed off rejoicing and apparently singing
hymns of victory. So much for the events of the
isle-fight.
 BOOK II 
From that time on, as I could no longer endure
the life in the whale and was discontented with the
delay, I sought a way of escape. First we determined to dig through the right side and make off,
and we made a beginning and tried to cut through.
-But when we had advanced some five furlongs without getting anywhere, we left off digging and decided to set the forest afire, thinking that in this way
the whale could be killed, and in that case our escape
would be easy. So we began at the tail end and set it
afire. For seven days and seven nights he was unaffected by the burning, but on the eighth and ninth
we gathered that he was in a bad way. For instance,
he yawned less frequently, and whenever he did
yawn he closed his mouth quickly. On the tenth
and eleventh day mortification at last set in and
he was noisome. On the twelfth we perceived just .
in time that if someone did not shore his jaws open
when he yawned, so that he could not close them
again, we stood a chance of being shut up in the
dead whale and dying there ourselves. At the last
moment, then, we propped the mouth open with
great beams and made our boat ready, putting aboard


 

all the water we could and the other provisions.
Our sailing-master was to be Scintharus.

 

On the next day the whale was dead at last.
We dragged the boat up, took her through the gaps,
made her fast to the teeth and lowered her slowly
into the sea. Climbing on the back and sacrificing
to Poseidon there by the trophy, we camped for
three days, as it was calm. On the fourth day we
sailed off, and in so doing met and grounded on many
of the dead from the sea-fight, and measured their
bodies with amazement. For some days we sailed with
a moderate breeze, and then a strong norther blew up
and brought on great cold. The entire sea was frozen
by it, not just on the surface but to a depth of fully
six fathoms, so that we could leave the boat and run
on the ice. The wind held and we could not stand
it, so we devised an odd remedy—the proposer of the
idea was Scintharus. We dug a very large cave in
the water and stopped in it for thirty days, keeping
a fire burning and eating the fish that we found in
digging. When our provisions at last failed, we came
out, hauled up the boat, which had frozen in, spread
our canvas and slid, gliding on the ice smoothly and
easily, just as if we were sailing. On the fifth day
it was warm again, the ice broke up and everything
turned to water once more.
 
After sailing about three hundred furlongs we


 

ran in at a small desert island, where we got water—
which had failed by this time—and shot two wild
bulls, and then sailed away. These bulls did not
have their horns on their head but under their eyes,
as Momus wanted. Momus suggested this in order that the animal might see
what he was doing with his horns. Not long afterwards we entered
a sea of milk, not of water, and in it a white island,
full of grapevines, came in sight. The island was
a great solid cheese, as we afterwards learned by
tasting it. Itwastwenty-five furlongsin circumference.
The vines were full of grapes, but the liquid which
we squeezed from them and drank was milk instead
of wine. A temple had been constructed in the
middle of the island in honour of Galatea the .
Nereid, as its inscription indicated. All the time
that we stopped in the island the earth was our
bread and meat and the milk from the grapes our
drink. Theruler of that region was said to be Tyro,
daughter of Salmoneus, who after departure from
home received this guerdon from Poseidon.
 As gala is milk and tyros cheese, the goddess and the
queen of the island are fitly chosen.