"I beg your ladyship's pardon," he
exclaims, "but are you goddess or are you a mortal woman? If you
are a goddess and live in heaven, there can be no doubt but you are
Jove's daughter Diana, for your face and figure are exactly like
hers," and so on in a long speech which I need not further quote
from.
"Stranger," replied Nausicaa, as soon as the speech was ended, "you
seem to be a very sensible well-disposed person. There is no
accounting for luck; Jove gives good or ill to every man, just as he
chooses, so you must take your lot, and make the best of it." She
then tells him she will give him clothes and everything else that a
foreigner in distress can reasonably expect. She calls back her
maids, scolds them for running away, and tells them to take Ulysses
and wash him in the river after giving him something to eat and
drink. So the maids give him the little gold cruse of oil and tell
him to go and wash himself, and as they seem to have completely
recovered from their alarm, Ulysses is compelled to say, "Young
ladies, please stand a little on one side, that I may wash the brine
from off my shoulders and anoint myself with oil; for it is long
enough since my skin has had a drop of oil upon it.
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