the islands, suitors of the Queen Penelope [Footnote: Pe-nel'-o-
pe.], for they said that Ulysses was dead, and that she should
choose another husband. These were gathered together, and were
sitting playing draughts [Footnote: draughts, checkers.] and
feasting. And Telemachus sat among them, vexed at heart, for they
wasted his substance; neither was he master in his house. But when
he saw the guest at the door, he rose from his place, and welcomed
him, and made him sit down, and commanded that they should give
him food and wine. And when he had ended his meal, Telemachus
asked him his business.

Thereupon the false Mentes said: "My name is Mentes, and I am King
of the Taphians, and I am sailing to Cyprus for copper, taking
iron in exchange. Now I have been long time the friend of this
house, of thy father and thy father's father, and I came trusting
to see thy father, for they told me that he was here. But now I
see that some god hath hindered his return, for that he is yet
alive I know full well. But tell me, who are these that I see? Is
this the gathering of a clan, or a wedding feast?"

Telemachus made answer: "O sir, while my father was yet alive, our
house was rich and honoured; but now that he is gone, things are
not well with me. I would not grieve so much had he fallen in
battle before Troy; for then the Greeks would have builded a great
burial mound for him, and he would thus have won great renown,
even for his son. But now the storms of the sea have swept him
away, and I am left in sore distress. For these whom thou seest
are the princes of the islands that come here to woo my mother.
She neither refuseth nor accepteth; and meanwhile they sit here,
and waste my substance."