Aminocles replied that he could not desire his son to have a better home than the society of warriors offered; and Chryseis avowed that she was bound to me by a perpetual debt of gratitude: I had liberated her from slavery, and it might be, if she continued with me still, that her missing lover would be restored to her.
Turning to Bichri, who was still whistling some national air in a lackadaisical manner, I said to him:
"As yet, young man, we have not heard your decision. Have you nothing to say?"
"Not much," he answered; "I planted a patch of Ziba's land with a lot of vine-slips. I think I shall go north with you, and look in here at Tarshish on my way back, just to see how my plantation prospers."
"Well done, Bichri!" cried Himilco; "you have set a young vineyard going, have you? You will have a long generation of tipplers never ceasing to bless the day you came to Gades. May the gods smile on you and your vines!"
Bichri did not vouchsafe Himilco any answer, but went on, as though talking to himself:
"With old Gebal, and little Dionysos, I think I can be happy enough. I shall miss poor Jonah, though."
I had thus learnt to my great surprise that there was not one of my companions who was disposed to leave me. I took measures, therefore, for consigning the charge of my cargo, including the silver, to a Sidonian captain who was about returning home, and then, without loss of time, laid in an ample store of provisions for my voyage over the untraversed waters of the West.
On the morning of my departure I went to take my leave of the naval suffect and of Ziba. As I passed along the quay by the entrance of the harbour, I found a great concourse of people gathered together for the purpose of witnessing the erection of two great pillars, one of which bore a figure of the sun, and the other a statue of our god Melkarth. I was naturally curious to ascertain the meaning of the columns, and was informed that they indicated the limits of the habitable world, and that beyond them there was nothing but ocean. But the response of the oracle was still echoing in my memory: the world for me had wider bounds, I smiled, and went my way with a hopeful heart.