They went up to a pair of folding doors at the farther end of the hall , and throwing them wide open , passed into the next room . Eurylochus , meanwhile , had stepped behind a pillar . In the short moment while the folding doors opened and closed again , he caught a glimpse of a very beautiful woman rising from the loom , and coming to meet the poor weather-beaten wanderers , with a hospitable smile , and her hand stretched out in welcome . There were four other young women , who joined their hands and danced merrily forward , making gestures of obeisance to the strangers . They were only less beautiful than the lady who seemed to be their mistress . Yet Eurylochus fancied that one of them had sea-green hair , and that the close-fitting bodice of a second looked like the bark of a tree , and that both the others had something odd in their aspect , although he could not quite determine what it was , in the little while that he had to examine them . The folding doors swung quickly back , and left him standing behind the pillar , in the solitude of the outer hall . There Eurylochus waited until he was quite weary , and listened eagerly to every sound , but without hearing anything that could help him to guess what had become of his friends . Footsteps , it is true , seemed to be passing and repassing , in other parts of the palace . Then there was a clatter of silver dishes , or golden ones , which made him imagine a rich feast in a splendid banqueting hall . But by and by he heard a tremendous grunting and squealing , and then a sudden scampering , like that of small , hard hoofs over a marble floor , while the voices of the mistress and her four handmaidens were screaming all together , in tones of anger and derision . Eurylochus could not conceive what had happened , unless a drove of swine had broken into the palace , attracted by the smell of the feast . Chancing to cast his eyes at the fountain , he saw that it did not shift its shape , as formerly , nor looked either like a long-robed man , or a lion , a tiger , a wolf , or an ass . It looked like nothing but a hog , which lay wallowing in the marble basin , and filled it from brim to brim . But we must leave the prudent Eurylochus waiting in the outer hall , and follow his friends into the inner secrecy of the palace . As soon as the beautiful woman saw them , she arose from the loom , as I have told you , and came forward , smiling , and stretching out her hand . She took the hand of the foremost among them , and bade him and the whole party welcome . `` You have been long expected , my good friends , '' said she . `` I and my maidens are well acquainted with you , although you do not appear to recognize us . Look at this piece of tapestry , and judge if your faces must not have been familiar to us . ''
So the voyagers examined the web of cloth which the beautiful woman had been weaving in her loom ; and , to their vast astonishment , they saw their own figures perfectly represented XXXXX different colored threads .
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