Page:Voyages and travels of Sindbad the sailor (2).pdf/8

8 had exchanged my goods for the commodities of the country, and then came to the city with the sum of a hundred thousand sequins. Here I bought slaves, fine lands, and built a great house and settled myself, determined to forget my past dangers, and to enjoy the pleasures of life.

Sindbad then ordered the musicians to go on with their concert, and when it was ended, he gave a purse with a hundred sequins to Hindbad saying, “Take this, Hindbad, return home, and regale yourself with your family to-night; but come back to-morrow, when you shall hear more extraordinary adventures that have befallen me than those of my First Voyage.”

I designed, after my first voyage, to spend the rest of my days at Bagdad; but ere long I grew weary of a quiet life. Accordingly I purchased rich commodities, and went to sea a second time, with some other merchants. One day we landed on an island, almost covered with trees bearing delicious fruits. Some diverted themselves with gathering flowers, others with gathering fruits, I sat down by a stream, between two large trees, which formed an agreeable shade, and fell asleep. I cannot tell how long I slept; but when I awakened, not only my companions, but the ship itself was gone. Nothing could exceed my grief and consternation at this event. I climbed to the top of a very high tree to see if there was any thing that could give me hopes. I perceived something large and white; but the distance was too great to allow me to distinguish what it was. I therefore hastened down from the tree, and I found it as white and smooth as ivory. I walked round it, to see if it was open on any side, but it was not; and it was impossible to climb to the top of it, the surface was so smooth and slippery. It was at least fifty paces round, and like a largo white bowl. On a sudden the sky became quite darkened. I looked up to see the cause, and beheld a bird of enormous size moving like a great black cloud toward me. I recollected that I had heard mariners speak of a bird called a Roc, so large that it could carry away young elephants, and I concluded that the great white bowl, which I so much admired, must be its egg. I was right, for the bird alighted, and sat over the egg. As I per- ceived her coming, I had crept close to the egg for shelter, so that I had before me one of the legs of the bird, which was as large as the trunk of a tree. I tied myself firmly to the leg of the roc with the cloth of my turban, in hopes that when she