What of the ship became, saith history not. 94 What of the man--the man himself shall show. "Like stone from sling," quoth Gawaine, "I was shot Into a ridge of what they call a _floe_,[14] There much amazed, but rescued from the waters, Myself and hound took up our frigid quarters. "Freed from the plank, drench'd, spluttering, stunn'd, and 95 bruised, We peer'd about us on the sweltering deep, And seeing nought, and being much confused, Crept side by side and nestled into sleep. The nearest kindred most avoid each other, So to shun Death, we visited his brother, "Awaked at last, we found the waves had stranded 96 A store of waifs portentous and nefarious; Here a dead whale was at my elbow landed, There a sick polypus, that sea-Briareus, Stretch'd out its claws to incorporate my corpus; While howl'd the hound half buried by a porpoise! "Nimbly I rose, disporpoising my friend;-- 97 Around me scatter'd lay more piteous wrecks, With every wave the accursed Tritons send Some sad memento of submergent decks, Prows, rudders, casks, ropes, blubber, hides, and hooks, Sailors, salt beef, tubs, cabin boys, and cooks. "Graves on the dead, with pious care bestow'd, 98 (Graves in the ice hewn out with mickle pain By axe and bill, which with the waifs had flow'd To that strange shore) I next collect the gain; Placed in a hollow cleft--and cover'd o'er;-- Then Knight and hound proceeded to explore. "Far had we wander'd, for the storm had join'd 99 To a great isle of ice, our friend the _floe_, When as the day (three hours its length!) declined, Out bray'd a roar; I stared around, and lo A flight of dwarfs about the size of sea-moths, Chased by two bears that might have eat behemoths! "Arm'd with the axe the Tritons had ejected, 100 I rush'd to succour the Pigmaean nation, In strife our valour, I have oft suspected, Proportions safety to intoxication, As drunken men securely walk on walls From which the wretch who keeps his senses falls; "Let but the noble frenzy seize the brain, 101 And strength divine seems breathed into the form; The rill when swollen swallows up a plain, The breeze runs mad before it blows a storm; To do great deeds, first lose your wits,--then do them! In fine--I burst upon the bears, and slew them! "The dwarfs, deliver'd, kneel, and pull their noses;[15] 102 In tugs which mean to say 'The Pigmy Nation A vote of thanks respectfully proposes From all the noses of the corporation!' Your Highness knows '_Magister Artis Venter_:' On signs for breakfast my replies concenter!