Well, we sailed for a day and a night with a
favorable wind, still in sight of land and making
no great progress. But as the sun rose on the
next day the wind increased, the sea rose, it grew
dark, and it became impossible even to take in
the sails. Accordingly, we surrendered ourselves
to the wind, and were storm-tossed for seventynine days; but on the eightieth the sun suddenly
shone out, and we perceived an island at no great
distance, high and wooded, with no fierce breakers
thundering about it, for the sea had already greatly subsided. So we brought the ship to land and
disembarked, and for some time we lay on the
ground, as was natural after our long distress.
But when we had got upon our feet we chose out
thirty of our number to stay and guard the ship,
and twenty to go inland with me and reconnoitre
the island.

 
When we had advanced as much as six hundred yards from the sea through the woods we
saw a pillar of wrought brass, bearing an inscription in Greek characters, blurred and rubbed
away, which read: "Herakles and Dionysos came
to this point." And there were two footprints in
the rock close by--one a hundred feet long, the


 


other smaller. I have no doubt that one of them,
the smaller, was left by Dionysos, the other by
Herakles. We paid our devotions and went forward. We had not gone far when we came to a
river flowing with wine-more like the wine of
Chios than any other.

The stream was full and
wide, so that in some places it was navigable.

So it came home to us more than ever that we
must believe the legend on the pillar when we
saw these signs of Dionysos's passage that way.

I made up my mind to explore the source of the
river and ascended along the stream; but I
found no spring, only a quantity of great vines
full of grapes, with a drop of translucent wine
trickling from the root of each, and from these
the river took its rise. There were also a quantity of fish to be seen in it, very like wine in color and taste. In fact we got drunk from eating
some of them that we caught, and we actually
found them full of lees when we cut them open.
Later, however, we bethought ourselves of the
other sort of fish that live in water, and by mixing
the two we mitigated the strength of our wine
food.

 We took some jars, and laid in a supply of
water and of wine, too, from the river, and having
encamped near it on the beach for the night, we
set sail at daybreak with a gentle breeze. But
about noonday, when we had lost sight of the
island, a whirlwind suddenly arose, spun the ship


 



around, lifted her four hundred miles in the air,
and did not set her back in the sea again; but as
she was hanging aloft in the air a wind struck the
sails, filled the canvas, and bore her on.

 
For
seven days and as many nights we coursed
through the air, and on the eighth we saw a great
earth in the air like an island, bright and round,
and shining with a great light. We made for it,
came to anchor, and went ashore. On examining
the country we found it inhabited and cultivated.
By day we could see nothing from it, but when
night came on many other islands appeared in
the neighborhood, some larger and some smaller,
of the color of fire, and a certain other earth below them with cities on it, and rivers and seas and
forests and mountains. This we judged was our
own.
 
We determined to go still farther into the interior, but we met some of the Hippogyps, as they
call themselves, and they arrested us. These
Hippogyps are men riding on great vultures,
using the birds like horses, for the vultures are
large and for the most part three-headed. You
may understand their size from this: each of their
feathers is longer and thicker than the mast of a
good-sized merchantman. Now it was the business of our Hippogyps to fly about the country,
and, if they found a stranger, bring him to the
king. Accordingly, they took us in charge and


 

brought us to him.
When he had looked at us,
he said: "I see, strangers, that you are Greeks.”
For he judged from our appearance and clothing.
Upon our replying that we were, he asked:
"How, then, have you come hither, traversing
such a waste of air?"
We told him our whole story, and then he began in turn and told us about himself: how he,
too, was a man, Endymion by name, and had
once been snatched up from our earth in his
sleep, and, arriving here, had become king of the
country. He said that this earth was what appeared to us below to be the moon. But he bade
us take heart and suspect no danger, for we should
have everything we wanted.