Chapter IV

Circe's Palace

Some of you have heard, no doubt, of the wise
King Ulysses, and how he went to the siege of
Troy, and how, after that famous city was taken
and burned, he spent ten long years in trying to
get back again to his own little kingdom of
Ithaca. At one time in the course of this weary
voyage, he arrived at an island that looked very
green and pleasant, but the name of which was
unknown to him. For, only a little while before
he came thither, he had met with a terrible hurri-
cane, or rather a great many hurricanes at once,
which drove his fleet of vessels into a strange part
of the sea, where neither himself nor any of his
mariners had ever sailed. This misfortune was
entirely owing to the foolish curiosity of his ship-
mates, who, while Ulysses lay asleep, had untied
some very bulky leathern bags, in which they

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v?