me. With words of greeting from the king, they bade me enter within
the walls. They led me through the Scaean gate and along the
well-paved streets, until we came, at last, to King Priam's hall.

It was a splendid house with broad doorways and polished porticos, and
marble columns richly carved. Within were fifty chambers, joining one
another, all walled with polished stone; in these abode the fifty sons
of Priam with their wedded wives. On the other side, and opening into
the court, were twelve chambers built for his daughters; while over all
were the sleeping-rooms for that noble household, and around were
galleries and stairways leading to the king's great hall below.

King Priam received me kindly, and, when he understood my errand, left
naught undone to help me forward with my wishes. Ten days I abode as a
guest in his halls, and when I would return to Greece he pressed me to
tarry yet a month in Troy. But the winds were fair, and the oracles
promised a pleasant voyage, and I begged that on the twelfth day he
would let me depart. So he and his sons brought many gifts, rich and
beautiful, and laid them at my feet--a fair mantle, and a doublet, and
a talent of fine gold, and a sword with a silver-studded hilt, and a
drinking-cup richly engraved that I might remember them when I pour
libations to the gods.

"Take these gifts," said Priam, "as tokens of our friendship for you,
and not only for you, but for all who dwell in distant Greece. For we
too are the children of the immortals. Our mighty ancestor, Dardanus,
was the son of Zeus. He it was who built Dardania on the slopes of
Ida, where the waters gush in many silvery streams from underneath the
rocky earth.