The Cruise of the Branwen

FROM ITALY TO GREECE reaches the great cavern called the Grotto of Sejanus. This is the cave of Polyphemus, guarded by tall pines and oaks: M ,.. , 'I.'\ ~ ' '~'- ' a,cprJ<TlJI TE 7rLTU<T(TlJI to€ opU(]"lJI UytKoµot<TtJI. And the pines are still taller than any round the coast. " About it," says Odysseus, " a high outer court was built with stones." The entrance is walled up to this day, and through a brick archway you must still penetrate to the great hall wherein the lambs and kids of the Cyclops were penned, among his milk-pails and his bowls. The original natural cavern was evidently long used by the country people as a safe refuge for their flocks and for themselves, as long as that primitive pastoral life endured of which Poly– phemus was a terrible Homeric type, an incarna– tion of the volcano, "vomiting stones and fire and smoke," which ever brooded sullenly above the shepherd's pastures. For many a mile, as we steamed quietly along in the sunshine of that April afternoon, the pillar of smoke above Vesuvius spread heavily upwards over the north-eastern horizon, and it was not till we were long past Sorrento that its ominous presence ceased to weigh down the sky. Once round the point, and with the Gulf of Salerno behind us, we steered for more open seas, and the waves rose higher as the evening grew more dark. After dinner on the 17th I remember giving orders that I should be called when we drew near the Straits of Messina, as we hoped to do very early the next morning. But the wind was 41