Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/121

103 said to me, “Smite him not a second time, for he will not die, but will live and destroy us.” So I held my hand, as he bade me, and the ghoul died. Then said the blind man to me, “Open the mouth of the cave and let us go out; so haply God may help us and deliver us from this place.” Quoth I, “No harm can come to us now; let us rather abide here and rest and eat of these sheep and drink of this wine, for the land is long.”

So we abode there two months, eating of the sheep and of the fruits of the island, till, one day, as we sat upon the beach, we caught sight of a great ship in the distance; so we cried out and made signs to the crew. They feared to draw near, knowing that the island was inhabited by a ghoul who ate men, and would have sheered off; but we ran down to the marge of the sea and made signs to them with the floating ends of our turbans and shouted to them, whereupon one of the sailors, who was sharp of sight, said to the rest, “Harkye, comrades, these seem men like ourselves, for they have not the fashion of ghouls.” So they made for us, little by little, till they drew near us and were certified that we were indeed human beings, when they saluted us and we returned their greeting and gave them the glad tidings of the death of the accursed ghoul, wherefore they thanked us.

Then we transported to the ship all that was in the cavern of stuffs and sheep and treasure, together with provision of the fruits of the island, such as should serve us days and months, and embarking, sailed on with a fair wind three days; at the end of which time the wind veered round against us and the sky became exceeding dark, nor had an hour passed, before the wind drove the vessel on to a rock, where it broke up and its planks were rent asunder. However, God the Most High decreed that I