For this purpose , my honored guests , I have ordered a banquet to be prepared . Fish , fowl , and flesh , roasted , and in luscious stews , and seasoned , I trust , to all your tastes , are ready to be served up . If your appetites tell you it is dinner time , then come with me to the festal saloon . '' At this kind invitation , the hungry mariners were quite overjoyed ; and one of them , taking upon himself to be spokesman , assured their hospitable hostess that any hour of the day was dinner time with them , whenever they could get flesh to put in the pot , and fire to boil it with . So the beautiful woman led the way ; and the four maidens -LRB- one of them had sea-green hair , another a bodice of oak bark , a third sprinkled a shower of water drops from her fingers ' ends , and the fourth had some other oddity , which I have forgotten -RRB- , all these followed behind , and hurried the guests along , until they entered a magnificent saloon . It was built in a perfect oval , and lighted from a crystal dome above . Around the walls were ranged two and twenty thrones , overhung by canopies of crimson and gold , and provided with the softest of cushions , which were tasselled and fringed with gold cord . Each of the strangers was invited to sit down ; and there they were , two and twenty storm-beaten mariners , in worn and tattered garb , sitting on two and twenty cushioned and canopied thrones , so rich and gorgeous that the proudest monarch had nothing more splendid in his stateliest hall . Then you might have seen the guests nodding , winking with one eye , and leaning from one throne to another , to communicate their satisfaction in hoarse whispers . `` Our good hostess has made kings of us all , '' said one . `` Ha ! do you smell the feast ? I 'll engage it will be fit to set before two and twenty kings . '' `` I hope , '' said another , `` it will be , mainly , good substantial joints , sirloins , spareribs , and hinder quarters , without too many kickshaws . If I thought the good lady would not take it amiss , I should call for a fat slice of fried bacon to begin with . '' Ah , the gluttons and gormandizers ! You see how it was with them . In the loftiest seats of dignity , on royal thrones , they could think of nothing but their greedy appetite , which was the portion of their nature that they shared with wolves and swine ; so that they resembled those vilest of animals far more than they did kings -- if , indeed , kings were what they ought to be . But the beautiful woman now clapped her hands ; and immediately there entered a train of two and twenty serving man , bringing dishes of the richest food , all hot from the kitchen fire , and sending up such a steam that it hung like a cloud below the crystal dome of the saloon . An equal number of attendants brought great flagons of wine , of various kinds , some of which sparkled as it was poured out , and went bubbling down the throat ; while , of other sorts , the purple liquor was so clear that you could see the wrought figures at the bottom of the goblet .
While the servants supplied the two and twenty guests with food and drink , the hostess and her four maidens went from one throne to another , exhorting them to eat their fill , and to quaff wine abundantly , and thus XXXXX recompense themselves , at this one banquet , for the many days when they had gone without a dinner .
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