THE STORY OF SINDBAD THE SAILOR
ON THE SEVENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
… I got up quickly, unrolled the fabric of my turban, doubled it, and rolled it up to make a big rope, I wrapped it around my waist firmly, and I ended up winding the two ends around one of the birds's fingers, creating a tight knot. For I had said to myself in my soul: “This enormous bird there will eventually fly away and, in this way, will pull me out of this loneliness and transport me to some place where I can see human beings. In any case, the place where I will be deposited will always be preferable to this desert island of which I am the only inhabitant!"
All of this! And despite my movements, the bird no more noticed my presence than if I had been some unimportant fly or some little ant out for a walk!
I lay like this all night, unable to close my eyes for fear that the bird would fly away and carry me off while I slept. But he did not move until daybreak. Only then did he rise from his egg, utter a terrible cry, and take flight, carrying me away. It rose and rose so high that I thought I was already touching the vault of heaven; then suddenly it descended with such rapidity that I no longer felt my own weight, and arrived with me on the ground. He landed on a steep place, while I, without waiting any longer, hastened to untie my turban, in mad terror of being taken away again before I had time to free myself from my tie. But I managed to detach myself without difficulty and, after shaking myself and pulling my robe back on me, I quickly moved away until I was no longer within reach of the bird, which I soon saw rise again in the air. This time he held in his claws a large black object, which was nothing but a serpent of unheard-of length and detestable shape. Soon he disappeared, heading in his flight towards the sea.
I, extremely moved by what had just happened to me, cast my eyes around me, and I remained nailed to the spot with terror. I found myself, in fact, transported into a wide and deep valley, surrounded on all sides by mountains so high that, to measure them with my gaze, I had to raise my head so much that my turban rolled behind my back on the ground. They were, moreover, so steep that it was impossible to climb them, and that I judged useless any attempt in this direction!
At this realization, my desolation and my despair knew no bounds, and I exclaimed: “Ah! how much better it would have been for me not to move from the desert island where I found myself, and which was a thousand times preferable to this desolate and dry solitude, where there is nothing to eat or drink. Over there, at least, the trees were full of fruit and springs with delicious water; but here, nothing but hostile and bare rocks in which to die of hunger and thirst! O my calamity! There is no recourse and power except in Allah the Omnipotent! Each time I escape a catastrophe, I only fall into another worse!"
I got up all the same from my place and walked through this valley to recognize it a little, and I noticed that it was entirely formed of diamond rocks. Everywhere around me the ground was strewn with large and small diamonds detached from the mountain and in places forming heaps the height of a man.
I was already beginning to take some interest in looking at them when a spectacle more appalling than all the horrors I had already experienced froze me motionless with terror. Amidst the diamond rocks I saw circulating the guardians, who were innumerable black serpents, bigger and taller than palm trees, and who could certainly swallow up, each of them, a large elephant. At this moment they were beginning to return to their lairs; for during the day, they hid themselves from being carried off by their enemy the roc, and only went about at night.
So I, with infinite caution, tried to get away from there, watching well where to put my feet and thinking in my soul: “Here, for having wanted to abuse the clemency of fate, O Sindbad, man of the insatiable and always empty eye, what you gain for the change! And, a prey to all the accumulated terrors, I continued to move aimlessly through the valley of the diamonds, resting from time to time in the places which seemed to me the most sheltered, and that until nightfall.
All the while, I had completely forgotten about eating and drinking, and all I could think about was getting out of this mess and saving my soul from the snakes. In this way, I ended up discovering, very close to the place where I had dropped, a cave whose entrance was very narrow, but sufficient for me to cross it. So I moved forward and entered the cave, taking care to block the entrance with a rock that I managed to roll over. Reassured in this way, I advanced inside and began to look for the most convenient place to sleep while waiting for the morning; and I thought: "Tomorrow, at daybreak, I will go out to see what fate has in store for me!"
So I was about to lie down when I realized that what at first I took for a big black rock was a terrible snake coiled up brooding on its eggs. Then my flesh felt all the horror of this spectacle and my skin curled up like a withered leaf and shuddered in all its extent, and I fell unconscious to the ground, and lay thus until morning.
Then, feeling that I had not yet been devoured, I was compelled to crawl to the entrance, push back the rock, and slip outside, where I arrived as if drunk and unable to support myself on my legs, so exhausted was I from lack of sleep and food and from this unrelenting terror.
I looked around me and suddenly, a few steps from my nose, I saw a large piece of meat fall, which came crashing down on the ground. Startled at first, I jumped, and then I looked up to see the one who wanted to knock me out like this, but I saw no one. Then I remembered a story once heard from the mouths of traveling merchants and explorers of the mountain of diamonds, where it was told that the diamond seekers, unable to descend into this inaccessible valley, had recourse to a curious means to obtain these precious stones. They were killing sheep, cutting them into large chunks, and throwing them to the bottom of the valley where they would fall on the tips of the diamonds that were embedded deep there. Then the rocs and the gigantic eagles came to swoop down on this prey and carried it away from this valley to carry it to their nests, on top of the rocks, where they would serve as food for their young. Then the diamond diggers rushed at the bird making great gestures and loud cries that made it let go and forced it to fly away. They would then search the quarter of meat and take the diamonds they found attached to it.
The idea came to me that I could still try to save my life and get out of this valley which looked to me like my tomb. So I got up and began by picking up a large quantity of diamonds, choosing the largest and most beautiful. I put it all over me; I fill my pockets with it, I slip it between my dress and my shirt, I fill my turban and my underpants with it, and I put it even in the lining of my clothes. After which, I unrolled the fabric of my turban, like the first time…
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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