Page:The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart.pdf/112

108 other such things. Then, "What is this?" I said. They answered that they were putting to; and lo! I see that these rush mats swell out to the size of barns (they said these were our wings), and then everything above us begins to whizz, while under us the water is divided and splashes; and before I could look, the coast, and the land, and everything vanishes from our sight. "Whither, then, have we gone?" I said. "What now will befall us?" They said that we were flying. "Well, then, in the name of God, let us fly," I said, and I marvel how rapidly we move on, not indeed without pleasure, but also not without fear; for when I went above to look around me, giddiness overcame me; when I crawled below, the terror of the waves that rushed violently against the planks of the ship encircled me. And then I thought in my mind whether it was not grave foolhardiness to entrust a man's life to such furious elements as water and wind, and thus purposely to encounter death, from which we are separated by the breadth of two fingers; for no thicker is the plank which is between us and the terrible abyss. But having resolved not to allow my fear to be known, I was silent.

14. Then what seemed a crude form of stench begins to stun me, and penetrating my brain and all intestines, it prostrates me. Then I (as well as the others who were not used to these ways) roll about, scream, know no counsel; everything flows