60 
CAPE COD. 
you could scarcely have heard my voice the while; and 
they are dashing and roaring this very moment, though 
it may be with less din and violence, for there the sea 
never rests. We were wholly absorbed by this spec¬ 
tacle and tumult, and like Chryses, though in a different 
mood from him, we walked silent along the shore of the 
resounding sea. 
B5 S’ QKecop irapa Biva 7ro\v(j)\oL(T^OLO SaXdcrarrjs*'^ 
I put in a little Greek now and then, partly because 
it sounds so much like the ocean, — though I doubt if 
Homer’s Mediterranean Sea ever sounded so loud as 
this. 
The attention of those who frequent the camp-meet¬ 
ings at Eastham is said to be divided between the 
preaching of the Methodists and the preaching of the 
billows on the backside of the Cape, for they all stream 
over here in the course of their stay. I trust that in 
this case the loudest voice carries it. With what effect 
may we suppose the ocean to say, “ My hearers! ” to the 
multitude on the bank! On that side some John N. 
Maffit; on this, the Reverend Poluphloisboios Tha- 
lassa. 
There was but little weed cast up here, and that kelp 
chiefly, there being scarcely a rock for rockweed to ad¬ 
here to. Who has not had a vision from some vessel’s 
deck, when he had still his land-legs on, of this great 
brown apron, drifting half upright, and quite submerged 
through the green water, clasping a stone or a deep-sea 
mussel in its unearthly fingers ? I have seen it cairy- 
* We have no word in English to express the sound of many waves, 
dashing at once, whether gently or violently, TTo\v<j)\oCa-poLos to the ear, 
and, in the ocean’s gentle moods, an dmptd/jtov ye'Aaa/Aa to the eye. 
