banquet that was evidently ready to be served
up in it.

So they hastened their steps towards the portal,
but had not got half way across the wide lawn,
when a pack of lions, tigers, and wolves came
bounding to meet them. The terrified mariners
started back, expecting no better fate than to be
torn to pieces and devoured. To their surprise
and joy, however, these wild beasts merely ca-
pered around them, wagging their tails, offering
their heads to be stroked and patted, and be-
having just like so many well-bred house dogs,
when they wish to express their delight at meet-
ing their master, or their master's friends. The
biggest lion licked the feet of Eurylochus; and
every other lion, and every wolf and tiger, singled
out one of his two and twenty followers, whom
the beast fondled as if he loved him better than
a beef bone.

But, for all that, Eurylochus imagined that he
saw something fierce and savage in their eyes;
nor would he have been surprised, at any mo-
ment, to feel the big lion's terrible claws, or to
see each of the tigers make a deadly spring, or
each wolf leap at the throat of the man whom

[[178]]

p177 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p178w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p179

v?