THE STORY OF SINDBAD THE SAILOR
ON THE TENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
… We discovered that it was a very lofty palace, square in shape, surrounded by strong walls, and which had a large ebony double door. As this door was open and was not guarded by any gatekeeper, we passed through it and entered an immense room as vast as a courtyard. This room had for its only furniture enormous kitchen utensils and spits of inordinate length; the ground had, for all carpets, heaps of bones, some already bleached, others still fresh. Also, in there, reigned a smell that offended our nostrils to the extreme. But as we were exhausted with fatigue and fear, we let ourselves fall at full length and fell into a deep sleep.
The sun had already set when a sound of thunder startled us and suddenly woke us up, In front of us we saw descending from the ceiling a being with the face of a black man, the height of a palm tree, which was more horrible to behold than all the monkeys put together. He had eyes red like two flaming embers, front teeth long and protruding like the tusks of a pig, an enormous mouth as vast as the opening of a well, lips hanging down on his chest, ears popping like the ears of an elephant and covering his shoulders, and hooked nails like the claws of a lion.
At this sight, we first began to convulse with terror, then we became rigid as the dead. But he came and sat down on a high bench leaning against the wall and from there began to examine us in silence, one by one, with all his eyes. After which, he advanced on us, came straight to me, in preference to all the other merchants, stretched out his hand, and seized me by the skin of the neck, as one seizes a bundle of rags. He then turned and turned me in all directions, feeling me as a butcher does for a sheep's head. But he must certainly not have found me to his liking, liquefied as I was by terror, and the fat of my skin melted by the fatigues of the journey and grief. Then he let go of me, letting me roll on the ground, grabbed my nearest neighbor, and handled him as he had handled me, only to throw him back and grab the next one. He thus took all the merchants, one after the other, and finally came to the captain of the ship.
Now the captain was a fat, fleshy man, and besides, he was the healthiest and strongest of all the men on the ship. So the choice of the terrible giant did not hesitate to fix itself on him: he took it between his fingers as a butcher would have held a lamb, threw it on the ground, put a foot on its neck and, in a single movement, broke its neck. He then grabbed one of the huge brooches in question and thrust it into his mouth, pulling it out through the foundation. Then he lit a big wood fire in the earthen stove in the room, placed the captain on the skewer in the middle of the flame, and began to turn it slowly until it was perfectly cooked. He then withdrew it from the fire and began by separating it into pieces like a chicken, using his fingernails for this. That done, he swallowed it all in the blink of an eye. After which he sucked the bones, emptied them of their marrow, and threw them among the heaps that were piling up in the room.
This meal finished, the frightful giant went to lie down on the bench to digest, and was not long in falling asleep, snoring exactly like a buffalo that had had its throat cut or like an ass that had been excited to bray. And he remained thus asleep until morning. We then saw him get up and walk away as he had come, leaving us frozen with terror.
When we were sure he was gone, we broke from the terrified silence we had kept all night, to finally share our thoughts with each other, and to sob and moan at the fate that awaited us.
And we said to ourselves sadly: "Why didn't we die drowned in the sea or eaten by monkeys, rather than being roasted on the coals? By Allah! This is a most detestable death! But what to do! What Allah wants must run! There is no recourse except to Allah the Almighty!"
We then left this building and prowled around the island all day long, looking for some hiding place in which to take shelter, but in vain; for this island was flat, and contained neither caverns nor anything which enabled us to avoid our search. So, as evening was falling, we found it still more prudent to return to the palace.
But no sooner had we arrived than the horrible black man made his appearance with a sound of thunder and the removal, after feeling and handling, of one of the merchants, my companions, whom he hastened to skewer, roast, and swallow in his belly, to then lie down on the bench and snore like a slaughtered brute until morning. He then woke up, stretched himself, growling fiercely, and went away, not caring about us any more than if he didn't see us.
When he was gone, and as we had had time to reflect on our sad situation, we all cried out at once: "Let us throw ourselves into the sea and die drowned, rather than end up roasted and swallowed. Because that would be a terrible death!" As we were about to carry out this project, one of us stood up and said: “Listen to me, companions! Don't you think it might be better to kill the black man before he exterminates us?" So I, in my turn, raised my finger and said: “Listen to me, companions! In case you really have resolved to kill the black man, you should first start by using the pieces of wood whose shore is covered to build us a raft on which we can flee this cursed island after having rid the creation of this Muslim-eating barbarian! We would then land on some island where we would wait for the clemency of fate which would send us some ship to return to our country! In any case, if the raft sinks and we drown, we will have avoided the rotisserie and we will not have committed a bad deed by killing ourselves on purpose. Our death would be a martyrdom and would count on the Day of Retribution...
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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