THE STORY OF SINDBAD THE SAILOR
ON THE EIGHTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
… After which, I unrolled the fabric of my turban, like the first time, I girded myself with it around the waist and I went to place myself below the quarter of mutton, which I attached firmly to my chest with the two ends of the turban.
I had been in this position for some time, when suddenly I felt myself lifted in the air, like a feather, in the formidable claws of a roc, me and the quarter of mutton. And, in the twinkling of an eye, I was out of the valley, on the top of the mountain, in the nest of the roc, who immediately prepared to shred the meat and my own flesh, to feed his little rocs. But suddenly a clamor arose and approached which frightened the bird and forced it to take flight by dropping me there. So I undid my bonds and stood up on my own two feet, with traces of blood on my clothes and my face.
I then saw approaching the place where I was a merchant who looked very disappointed and very frightened when he saw me. But, seeing that I meant him no harm, and that, moreover, I was not moving, he leaned over the piece of meat and searched it, without succeeding in finding the diamonds he was looking for. Then he raised his great arms to heaven and lamented, saying: “O disillusionment! O my loss! There is no recourse but to Allah! I take refuge in Allah from the Accursed, the Wicked!" And he clapped his palms together, with signs of immense despair.
At this sight, I approached and wished him peace. But he, without returning my salam, glared at me furiously and shouted: “Who are you? And by what right did you come here to steal my property?" I replied: “Do not be afraid, O worthy merchant, for I am no thief, and your wealth has not diminished in any way. I am a human being, not an evil genius, as you seem to believe. I am even an honest man among honest people, and formerly I was a merchant by trade, before running into extremely strange adventures. As for why I came to this place, it is an astonishing story, which I will tell you presently. But, first, I want to prove my good intentions to you, by rewarding you with some diamonds, which I myself picked up at the bottom of this abyss which has never been probed by the eye of humans!"
I immediately took from my belt some beautiful samples of diamonds, and I handed them to him, saying: "Here is a gain that, in your life, you would not have dared to hope for!" Then, the owner of the quarter of mutton was in unimaginable joy and thanked me very much, and, after a thousand effusions, said to me: “O my master, the blessing is in you! But just one of these diamonds is enough to enrich me until the most remote old age! For in my life, I have never seen the like in the courts of kings and sultans!" And he thanked me again and finally called the other merchants who were there and who came to crowd around me, wishing me peace and welcome. And I told them my strange adventure, from beginning to end. But there is no point in repeating it.
Then the merchants, recovering from their astonishment, congratulated me greatly on my deliverance, saying to me: “By Allah! your destiny has drawn you from an abyss from which no one before you has ever returned!" Then, as they saw me exhausted with fatigue, hunger, and thirst, they hastened to give me plenty to eat and drink and led me to a tent where they watched over my sleep, which lasted a whole day and a night.
In the morning, the merchants took me with them, as I began to feel intensely my joy at having escaped these unprecedented dangers. We arrived, after a fairly short journey, on a very pleasant island, where magnificent trees grew in shade so dense and extensive that each of them could easily shelter a hundred men. It is precisely from these trees that we get the white substance, with a warm and pleasant smell, which is camphor. For this purpose, one pierces the top of the tree, and one receives in a vase the juice which first flows out in the form of drops of gum, and which is nothing else than the honey of the tree.
It is also on this island that I saw the terrible animal named "karkadann", which grazes there exactly as cows and buffaloes graze in our meadows. The body of this beast is bigger than the body of the camel; its nose bears at its extremity a horn ten cubits long, on which is engraved the figure of a human being. This horn is so strong that it is used by the karkadann to fight and defeat the elephant, then to skewer it and lift it from the ground, until it is dead. Then the fat of the dead elephant flows into the eyes of the karkadann, who is blinded by it and falls on the spot. Then from the heights of the air, the terrible roc swoops down on them both, which lifts them together and carries them to its nest to feed her little ones.
We stayed there for some time, breathing the fresh air; which gave me time to exchange my diamonds for gold and cash, more than the hold of a ship could hold. Then we went from there; and, from island to island, and from country to country, and from city to city, where I admired each time the beautiful work of the Creator, making here and there a few sales, purchases, and exchanges, we ended up by touching, in a blessed country, at Basra, to go from there up to Baghdad, the abode of peace!
So I hastened to my street and entered my house, rich in considerable sums, gold dinars, and the finest diamonds, which I had not had the heart to sell. Also, after the effusions of returning to the midst of my relatives and my friends, I did not fail to behave generously by spreading largesse around me, without forgetting anyone.
Afterward, I used life joyfully, eating exquisite dishes, drinking delicately, dressing in rich clothes, and hardly depriving myself of the company of delightful people. Also, every day I had many distinguished visitors who, having heard of my adventures, honored me with their presence to ask me to tell them about my travels and to bring them up to date with the affairs of distant countries. Me, I felt an effective satisfaction in instructing them on all this: which made everyone go away congratulating me on having escaped such terrible dangers and marveling at my story to the limit of wonder. And so ended my second journey.
But tomorrow, my friends...
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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