THE FIFTH VOYAGE OF SINDBAD THE SEAMAN

KNOW, O my brothers, that when I had been awhile on shore after my
fourth voyage, and when, in my comfort and pleasures and

merrymakings and in my rejoicing over my large gains and profits, I
had forgotten all I had endured of perils and sufferings, the carnal

man was again seized with the longing to travel and to see foreign
countries and islands. Accordingly I bought costlymerchandise

suited to my purpose and, making it up into bales, repaired to
Bassorah, where I walked about the river quay till I found a fine tall

ship, newly builded, with gear unused and fitted ready for sea. She
pleased me, so I bought her and, embarking my goods in her, hired a

master and crew, over whom I set certain of my slaves and servants
as inspectors. A number of merchants also brought their outfits and

paid me freight and passage money. Then, after reciting the fatihah,
we set sail over Allah's pool in all joy and cheer, promising

ourselves a prosperousvoyage and much profit.
We sailed from city to city and from island to island and from sea

to sea viewing the cities and countries by which we passed, and
selling and buying in not a few, till one day we came to a great

uninhabited island, deserted and desolate, whereon was a white dome of
biggest bulk half buried in the sands. The merchants landed to examine

this dome, leaving me in the ship, and when they drew near, behold, it
was a huge roc's egg. They fell a-beating it with stones, knowing

not what it was, and presently broke it open, whereupon much water ran
out of it and the young roc appeared within. So they pulled it forth

of the shell and cut its throat and took of it great store of meat.
Now I was in the ship and knew not what they did, but presently one of

the passengers came up to me and said, "O my lord, come and look at
the egg that we thought to be a dome." So I looked, and seeing the

merchants beating it with stones, called out to them: "Stop, stop!
Do not meddle with that egg, or the bird roc will come out and break

our ship and destroy us." But they paid no heed to me and gave not
over smiting upon the egg, when behold, the day grew dark and dun

and the sun was hidden from us, as if some great cloud had passed over
the firmament. So we raised our eyes and saw that what we took for a

cloud was the roc poised between us and the sun, and it was his
wings that darkened the day. When he came and saw his egg broken, he

cried a loud cry, whereupon his mate came flying up and they both
began circling about the ship, crying out at us with voices louder

than thunder. I called to the rais and crew, "Put out to sea and
seek safety in flight, before we be all destroyed!" So the merchants

came on board and we cast off and made haste from the island to gain
the open sea.

When the rocs saw this, they flew off, and we crowded all sail on
the ship, thinking to get out of their country, but presently the

two reappeared and flew after us and stood over us, each carrying in
its claws a huge boulder which it had brought from the mountains. As

soon as the he-roc came up with us, he let fall upon us the rock he
held in his pounces, but the master put about ship, so that the rock

missed her by some small matter and plunged into the waves with such
violence that the ship pitched high and then sank into the trough of

the sea, and the bottom the ocean appeared to us. Then the she-roc let
fall her rock, which was bigger than that of her mate, and as

Destiny had decreed, it fell on the poop of the ship and crushed it,
the rudder flying into twenty pieces. Whereupon the vessel foundered

and all and everything on board were cast into the main. As for me,
I struggled for sweet life till Almighty Allah threw in my way one

of the planks of the ship, to which I clung and bestriding it, fell
a-paddling with my feet.

Now the ship had gone down hard by an island in the midst of the
main, and the winds and waves bore me on till, by permission of the

Most High, they cast me up on the shore of the island, at the last
gasp for toil and stress" target="_blank" title="n.痛苦 vt.使苦恼">distress and half-dead with hunger and thirst. So

I landed more like a corpse than a live man, and throwing myself
down on the beach, lay there awhile till I began to revive and recover

spirits, when I walked about the island, and found it as it were one
of the garths and gardens of Paradise. Its trees, in abundance

dight, bore ripe-yellow fruit for freight, its streams ran clear and
bright, its flowers were fair to scent and to sight, and its birds

warbled with delight the praises of Him to whom belong Permanence
and All-might. So I ate my fill of the fruits and slaked my thirst

with the water of the streams till I could no more, and I returned
thanks to the Most High and glorified Him, after which I sat till

nightfallhearing no voice and seeing none inhabitant. Then I lay
down, well-nigh dead for travail and trouble and terror, and slept

without surcease till morning, when I arose and walked about under the
trees till I came to the channel of a draw well fed by a spring of

running water, by which well sat an old man of venerable aspect,
girt about with a waistcloth made of the fiber of palm fronds. Quoth I

to myself. "Haply this Sheikh is of those who were wrecked in the ship
and hath made his way to this island."

So I drew near to him and saluted him, and he returned my salaam
by signs, but spoke not, and I said to him, "O nuncle mine, what

causeth thee to sit here?" He shook his head and moaned and signed
to me with his hand as who should say, "Take me on thy shoulders and

carry me to the other side of the well channel." And quoth I in my
mind: "I will deal kindly with him and do what he desireth. It may

be I shall win me a reward in Heaven, for he may be a paralytic." So I
took him on my back, and carrying him to the place whereat he pointed,

said to him, "Dismount at thy leisure." But he would not get off my
back, and wound his legs about my neck. I looked at them, and seeing

that they were like a buffalo's hide for blackness and roughness,
was affrighted and would have cast him off, but he clung to me and

gripped my neck with his legs till I was well-nigh choked, the world
grew black in my sight and I fell senseless to the ground like one

dead.
But he still kept his seat and raising his legs, drummed with his

heels and beat harder than palm rods my back and shoulders, till he
forced me to rise for excess of pain. Then he signed to me with his

hand to carry him hither and thither among the trees which bore the
best fruits, and if ever I refused to do his bidding or loitered or

took my leisure, he beat me with his feet more grievously than if I
had been beaten with whips. He ceased not to signal with his hand

wherever he was minded to go, so I carried him about the island,
like a captive slave, and he dismounted not night or day. And whenas

he wished to sleep, he wound his legs about my neck and leaned back
and slept awhile, then arose and beat me, whereupon I sprang up in

haste, unable to gainsay him because of the pain he inflicted on me.
And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me of having taken

compassion on him, and continued in this condition, suffering
fatigue not to be described, till I said to myself: "I wrought him a

weal and he requited me with my ill. By Allah, never more will I do
any man a service so long as I live!" And again and again I besought

the Most High that I might die, for stress of weariness and misery.
And thus I abode a long while till one day I came with him to a

place wherein was abundance of gourds, many of them dry. So I took a
great dry gourd and cutting open the head, scooped out the inside

and cleaned it, after which I gathered grapes from a vine which grew
hard by and squeezed them into the gourd till it was full of the

juice. Then I stopped up the mouth and set it in the sun, where I left
it for some days until it became strong wine, and every day I used

to drink of it, to comfort and sustain me under my fatigues with
that froward and obstinate fiend. And as often as I drank myself

drunk, I forgot my troubles and took new heart. One day he saw me
and signed to me with his hand, as who should say, "What is that?"

Quoth I, "It is an excellent cordial, which cheereth the heart and
reviveth the spirits." Then, being heated with wine, I ran and

danced with him among the trees, clapping my hands and singing and
making merry, and I staggered under him by design.