waiting in the outer hall, and follow his friends
into the inner secrecy of the palace. As soon as
the beautiful woman saw them, she arose from
the loom, as I have told you, and came forward,
smiling, and stretching out her hand. She took
the hand of the foremost among them, and bade
him and the whole party welcome.

"You have been long expected, my good
friends," said she. "I and my maidens are
well acquainted with you, although you do not
appear to recognize us. Look at this piece of
tapestry, and judge if your faces must not have
been familiar to us."

So the voyagers examined the web of cloth
which the beautiful woman had been weaving
in her loom; and, to their vast astonishment,
they saw their own figures perfectly represented
in different colored threads. It was a life-like
picture of their recent adventures, showing
them in the cave of Polyphemus, and how they
had put out his one great moony eye; while in
another part of the tapestry they were untying
the leathern bags, puffed out with contrary
winds; and farther on, they beheld themselves
scampering away from the gigantic king of the

[[184]]

p183 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p184w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p185

v?