"And here," said the seeming bird, "take this girdle and tie
about your middle, which has virtue to protect the wearer at sea, and you
shall safely reach the shore; but when you have landed, cast it far from
you back into the sea." He did as the sea-bird instructed him; he stripped
himself naked, and, fastening the wondrous girdle about his middle, cast
himself into the seas to swim. The bird dived past his sight into the
fathomless abyss of the ocean.
Two days and two nights he spent in struggling with the waves, though sore
buffeted, and almost spent, never giving up himself for lost, such
confidence he had in that charm which he wore about his middle, and in the
words of that divine bird. But the third morning the winds grew calm and
all the heavens were clear. Then he saw himself nigh land, which he knew
to be the coast of the Phaeacians, a people good to strangers and
abounding in ships, by whose favour he doubted not that he should soon
obtain a passage to his own country. And such joy he conceived in his
heart as good sons have that esteem their father's life dear, when long
sickness has held him down to his bed and wasted his body, and they see at
length health return to the old man, with restored strength and spirits,
in reward of their many prayers to the gods for his safety: so precious
was the prospect of home-return to Ulysses, that he might restore health
to his country (his better parent), that had long languished as full of
distempers in his absence.
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