"Take my advice then, and do not go travelling about for long so
far from home, nor leave your property with such dangerous
people in your house; they will eat up everything you have among
them, and you will have been on a fool's errand. Still, I should
advise you by all means to go and visit Menelaus, who has lately
come off a voyage among such distant peoples as no man could
ever hope to get back from, when the winds had once carried him
so far out of his reckoning; even birds cannot fly the distance
in a twelve-month, so vast and terrible are the seas that they
must cross. Go to him, therefore, by sea, and take your own men
with you; or if you would rather travel by land you can have a
chariot, you can have horses, and here are my sons who can
escort you to Lacedaemon where Menelaus lives. Beg of him to
speak the truth, and he will tell you no lies, for he is an
excellent person."

As he spoke the sun set and it came on dark, whereon Minerva
said, "Sir, all that you have said is well; now, however, order
the tongues of the victims to be cut, and mix wine that we may
make drink-offerings to Neptune, and the other immortals, and
then go to bed, for it is bed time. People should go away early
and not keep late hours at a religious festival."

Thus spoke the daughter of Jove, and they obeyed her saying. Men
servants poured water over the hands of the guests, while pages
filled the mixing-bowls with wine and water, and handed it round
after giving every man his drink offering; then they threw the
tongues of the victims into the fire, and stood up to make their
drink offerings. When they had made their offerings and had