One
brought water to wash his feet, and one brought wine to chase away, with a
refreshing sweetness, the sorrows that had come of late so thick upon him,
and hurt his noble mind. They strewed perfumes on his head, and, after he
had bathed in a bath of the choicest aromatics, they brought him rich and
costly apparel to put on. Then he was conducted to a throne of massy
silver, and a regale, fit for Jove when he banquets, was placed before
him. But the feast which Ulysses desired was to see his friends (the
partners of his voyage) once more in the shapes of men; and the food which
could give him nourishment must be taken in at his eyes. Because he missed
this sight, he sat melancholy and thoughtful, and would taste of none of
the rich delicacies placed before him. Which when Circe noted, she easily
divined the cause of his sadness, and leaving the seat in which she sat
throned, went to her sty, and let abroad his men, who came in like swine,
and filled the ample hall, where Ulysses sat, with gruntings. Hardly had
he time to let his sad eye run over their altered forms and brutal
metamorphosis, when, with an ointment which she smeared over them,
suddenly their bristles fell off, and they started up in their own shapes,
men as before. They knew their leader again, and clung about him, with joy
of their late restoration, and some shame for their late change; and wept
so loud, blubbering out their joy in broken accents, that the palace was
filled with a sound of pleasing mourning, and the witch herself, great
Circe, was not unmoved at the sight.
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