This is just one section from the ``Arabian Nights'' in the translation of
Sir Richard Francis Burton. Here is an
overview.
The Fourth Voyage Of Sindbad The Seaman
KNOW, O my brethren, that after my return from my third voyage and
forgathering with my friends, and forgetting all my perils and
hardships in the enjoyment of ease and comfort and repose, I was
visited one day by a company of merchants who sat down with me and
talked of foreign travel and traffic till the old bad man within me
yearned to go with them and enjoy the sight of strange countries,
and I longed for the society of the various races of mankind and for
traffic and profit. So I resolved to travel with them and, buying
the necessaries for a long voyage and great store of costly goods,
more than ever before, transported them from Baghdad to Bassorah,
where I took ship with the merchants in question, who were of the
chief of the town. We set out, trusting in the blessing of Almighty
Allah, and with a favoring breeze and the best conditions we salled
from island to island and sea to sea till one day there arose
against us a contrary wind and the captain cast out his anchors and
brought the ship to a standstill, fearing lest she should founder in
midocean.
Then we all fell to prayer and humbling ourselves before the Most
High, but as we were thus engaged there smote us a furious squall
which tore the sails to rags and tatters. The anchor cable parted and,
the ship foundering, we were cast into the sea, goods and all. I
kept myself afloat by swimming half the day till, when I had given
myself up for lost, the Almighty threw in my way one of the planks
of the ship, whereon I and some others of the merchants scrambled and,
mounting it as we would a horse, paddled with our feet in the sea.
We abode thus a day and a night, the wind and waves helping us on, and
on the second day shortly before the midtime between sunrise and
noon the breeze freshened and the sea wrought and the rising waves
cast us upon an island, well-nigh dead bodies for weariness and want
of sleep, cold and hunger and fear and thirst. We walked about the
shore and found abundance of herbs, whereof we ate enough to keep
breath in body and to stay our failing spirits, then lay down and
slept till morning hard by the sea. And when morning came with its
sheen and shone, we arose and walked about the island to the right and
left till we came in sight of an inhabited house afar off. So we
made toward it, and ceased not walking till we reached the door
thereof when lo! a number of naked men issued from it, and without
saluting us or a word said, laid hold of us masterfully and carried us
to their King, who signed us to sit. So we sat down and they set
food before us such as we knew not and whose like we had never seen in
all our lives. My companions ate of it, for stress of hunger, but my
stomach revolted from it and I would not eat, and my refraining from
it was, by Allah's favor, the cause of my being alive till now. For no
sooner had my comrades tasted of it than their reason fled and their
condition changed and they began to devour it like madmen possessed of
an evil spirit. Then the savages give them to drink of coconut oil and
anointed them therewith, and straightway after drinking thereof
their eyes turned into their heads and they fell to eating greedily,
against their wont.
When I saw this, I was confounded, and concerned for them, nor was I
less anxious about myself, for fear of the naked folk. So I watched
them narrowly, and it was not long before I discovered them to be a
tribe of Magian cannibals whose King was a Ghul. All who came to their
country or whoso they caught in their valleys or on their roads they
brought to this King and fed them upon that food and anointed them
with that oil, whereupon their stomachs dilated that they might eat
largely, wilst their reason fled and they lost the power of thought
and became idiots. Then they stuffed them with coconut oil and the
aforesaid food till they became fat and gross, when they slaughtered
them by cutting their throats and roasted them for the King's
eating, but as for the savages themselves, they ate human flesh raw.
When I saw this, I was sore dismayed for myself and my comrades, who
were now become so stupefied that they knew not what was done with
them. And the naked folk committed them to one who used every day to
lead them out and pasture them on the island like cattle. And they
wandered amongst the trees and rested at will, thus waxing very fat.
As for me, I wasted away and became sickly for fear and hunger and
my flesh shriveled on my bones, which when the savages saw, they
left me alone and took no thought of me and so far forgot me that
one day I gave them the slip and walking out of their place, made
for the beach, which was distant, and there espied a very old man
seated on a high place girt by the waters. I looked at him and knew
him for the herdsman who had charge of pasturing my fellows, and
with him were many others in like case. As soon as he saw me, he
knew me to be in possession of my reason and not afflicted like the
rest whom he was pasturing, so signed to me from afar, as who should
say, "Turn back and take the right-hand road, for that will lead
thee into the King's highway." So I turned back, as he bade me, and
followed the right-hand road, now running for fear and then walking
leisurely to rest me, till I was out of the old man's sight. By this
time the sun had gone down and the darkness set in, so I sat down to
rest and would have slept, but sleep came not to me that night for
stress of fear and famine and fatigue.
When the night was half spent, I rose and walked on till the day
broke in all its beauty and the sun rose over the heads of the lofty
hills and athwart the low gravelly plains. Now I was weary and
hungry and thirsty, so I ate my fill of herbs and grasses that grew in
the island and kept life in body and stayed my stomach, after which
I set out again and fared on all that day and the next night,
staying my greed with roots and herbs. Nor did I cease walking for
seven days and their nights, till the morn of the eighth day, when I
caught sight of a faint object in the distance. So I made toward it,
though my heart quaked for all I had suffered first and last, and,
behold, it was a company of men gathering pepper grains. As soon as
they saw me, they hastened up to me and surrounding me on all sides,
said to me, "Who art thou, and whence come?" I replied, "Know, O folk,
that I am a poor stranger," and acquainted them with my case and all
the hardships and perils I had suffered, whereat they marveled and
gave me joy of my safety, saying: "By Allah, this is wonderful! But
how didst thou escape from these blacks who swarm in the island and
devour all who fall in with them, nor is any safe from them, nor can
any get out of their clutches?"
And after I had told them the fate of my companions, they made me
sit by them till they got quit of their work, and fetched me
somewhat of good food, which I ate, for I was hungry, and rested
awhile. After which they took ship with me and carrying me to their
island home, brought me before their King, who returned my salute
and received me honorably and questioned me of my case. I told him all
that had befallen me from the day of my leaving Baghdad city,
whereupon he wondered with great wonder at my adventures, he and his
courtiers, and bade me sit by him. Then he called for food and I ate
with him what sufficed me and washed my hands and returned thanks to
Almighty Allah for all His favors, praising Him and glorifying Him.
Then I left the King and walked for solace about the city, which I
found wealthy and populous, abounding in market streets well stocked
with food and merchandise and full of buyers and sellers. So I
rejoiced
at having reached so pleasant a place and took my ease there after
my fatigues, and I made friends with the townsfolk, nor was it long
before I became more in honor and favor with them and their King
than any of the chief men of the realm.
Now I saw that all the citizens, great and small, rode fine
horses, high-priced and thoroughbred, without saddles or housings,
whereat I wondered and said to the King: "Wherefore, O my lord, dost
thou not ride with a saddle? Therein is ease for the rider and
increase of power." "What is a saddle?" asked he. "I never saw nor
used such a thing in all my life." And I answered, "With thy
permission I will make thee a saddle, that thou mayst ride on it and
see the comfort thereof." And quoth he, "Do so." So quoth I to him,
"Furnish me with some woods." which being brought, I sought me a
clever carpenter and sitting by him, showed him how to make the
saddletree, portraying for him the fashion thereof in ink on the wood.
Then I took wool and teased it and made felt of it, and, covering
the saddletree with leather, stuffed it, and polished it, and attached
the girth and stirrup leathers. After which I fetched a blacksmith and
described to him the fashion of the stirrups and bridle bit. So he
forged a fine pair of stirrups and a bit, and filed them smooth and
tinned them. Moreover, I made fast to them fringes of silk and
fitted bridle leathers to the bit. Then I fetched one of the best of
the royal horses and saddling and bridling him, hung the stirrups to
the saddle and led him to the King. The thing took his fancy and he
thanked me, then he mounted and rejoiced greatly in the saddle and
rewarded me handsomely for my work.
When the King's Wazir saw the saddle, he asked of me one like it,
and I made it for him. Furthermore, all the grandees and officers of
state came for saddles to me, so I fell to making saddles (having
taught the craft to the carpenter and blacksmith) and selling them
to all who sought, till I amassed great wealth and became in high
honor and great favor with the King and his household and grandees.
I abode thus till one day, as I was sitting with the King in all
respect and contentment, he said to me: "Know thou, O such a one, thou
art become one of us, dear as a brother, and we hold thee in such
regard and affection that we cannot part with thee nor suffer thee
to leave our city. Wherefore I desire of thee obedience in a certain
matter, and I will not have thee gainsay me." Answered I: "O King,
what is it thou desirest of me? Far be it from me to gainsay thee in
aught, for I am indebted to thee for many favors and bounties and much
kindness, and (praised be Allah!) I am become one of thy servants."
Quoth he: "I have a mind to marry thee to a fair, clever, and
agreeable wife who is wealthy as she is beautiful, so thou mayest be
naturalized and domiciled with us. I will lodge thee with me in my
palace, wherefore oppose me not neither cross me in this." When I
heard these words I was ashamed and held my peace nor could make him
any answer, by reason of my much bashfulness before him. Asked he,
"Why dost thou not reply to me, O my son?" and I answered, saying,
"O my master, it is thine to command, O King of the Age!" So he
summoned the kazi and the witnesses and married me straightway to a
lady of a noble tree and high pedigree, wealthy in moneys and means,
the flower of an ancient race, of surpassing beauty and grace, and the
owner of farms and estates and many a dwelling place.
Now after the King my master had married me to this choice wife,
he also gave me a great and goodly house standing alone, together with
slaves and officers, and assigned me pay and allowances. So I became
in all ease and contentment and delight and forgot everything which
had befallen me of weariness and trouble and hardship. For I loved
my wife with fondest love and she loved me no less, and we were as
one, and abode in the utmost comfort of life and in its happiness. And
I said in myself, "When I return to my native land, I will carry her
with me." But whatso is predestined to a man, that needs must be,
and none knoweth what shall befall him. We lived thus a great while,
till Almighty Allah bereft one of my neighbors of his wife. Now he was
a gossip of mine, so hearing the cry of the keeners, I went in to
condole him on his loss and found him in very ill plight, full of
trouble and weary of soul and mind. I condoled with him and
comforted him, saying: "Mourn not for thy wife, who hath now found the
mercy of Allah. The Lord will surely give thee a better in her
stead, and thy name shall be great and thy life shall be long in the
land, Inshallah!"
But he wept bitter tears and replied: "O my friend, how can I
marry another wife, and how shall Allah replace her to me with a
better than she, whenas I have but one day left to live?" "O my
brother," said I, "return to thy senses and announce not glad
tidings of thine own death, for thou art well, sound, and in good
case." "By thy life, O my friend," rejoined he, "tomorrow thou wilt
lose me, and wilt never see me again till the Day of Resurrection."
I asked, "How so?" and he answered: "This very day they bury my
wife, and they bury me with her in one tomb. For it is the custom with
us, if the wife die first, to bury the husband alive with her, and
in like manner the wife if the husband die first, so that neither
may enjoy life after losing his or her mate." "By Allah," cried I,
"this is a most vile, lewd custom, and not to be endured of any!"
Meanwhile, behold, the most part of the townsfolk came in and fell
to condoling with my gossip for his wife and for himself.
Presently they laid the dead woman out, as was their wont, and
setting her on a bier, carried her and her husband without the city
till they came to a place in the side of a mountain at the end of
the island by the sea. And here they raised a great rock and
discovered the mouth of a stone-riveted pit or well, leading down into
a vast underground cavern that ran beneath the mountain. Into this pit
they threw the corpse, then, tying a rope of palm fibers under the
husband's armpits, they let him down into the cavern, and with him a
great pitcher of fresh water and seven scones by way of viaticum. When
he came to the bottom, he loosed himself from the rope and they drew
it up, and stopping the mouth of the pit with the great stone, they
returned to the city, leaving my friend in the cavern with his dead
wife. When I saw this, I said to myself, "By Allah, this fashion of
death is more grievous than the first!" And I went in to the King
and said to him, "O my lord, why do ye bury the quick with the
dead?" Quoth he: "It hath been the custom, thou must know, of our
forebears and our olden kings from time immemorial, if the husband die
first, to bury his wife with him, and the like with the wife, so we
may not sever them, alive or dead." I asked, "O King of the Age, if
the wife of a foreigner like myself die among you, deal ye with him as
with yonder man?" and he answered, "Assuredly we do with him even as
thou hast seen." When I heard this, my gall bladder was like to burst,
for the violence of my dismay and concern for myself. My wit became
dazed, I felt as if in a vile dungeon, and hated their society, for
I went about in fear lest my wife should die before me and they bury
me alive with her. However, after a while I comforted myself,
saying, "Haply I shall predecease her, or shall have returned to my
own land before she die, for none knoweth which shall go first and
which shall go last."
Then I applied myself to diverting my mind from this thought with
various occupations, but it was not long before my wife sickened and
complained and took to her pillow and fared after a few days to the
mercy of Allah. And the King and the rest of the folk came, as was
their wont, to condole with me and her family and to console us for
her loss, and not less to condole with me for myself. Then the women
washed her, and arraying her in her richest raiment and golden
ornaments, necklaces, and jewelry, laid her on the bier and bore her
to the mountain aforesaid, where they lifted the cover of the pit
and cast her in. After which all my intimates and acquaintances and my
wife's kith and kin came round me, to farewell me in my lifetime and
console me for my own death, whilst I cried out among them, saying:
"Almighty Allah never made it lawful to bury the quick with the
dead! I am a stranger, not one of your kind, and I cannot abear your
custom, and had I known it I never would have wedded among you!"
They heard me not and paid no heed to my words, but laying hold of me,
bound me by force and let me down. into the cavern, with a large
gugglet of sweet water and seven cakes of bread, according to their
custom. When I came to the bottom, they called out to me to cast
myself loose from the cords, but I refused to do so, so they threw
them down on me and, closing the mouth of the pit with the stones
aforesaid, went their ways.
I looked about me and found myself in a vast cave full of dead
bodies that exhaled a fulsome and loathsome smell, and the air was
heavy with the groans of the dying. Thereupon I fell to blaming myself
for what I had done, saying: "By Allah, I deserve all that hath
befallen me and all that shall befall me! What curse was upon me to
take a wife in this city? There is no Majesty and there is no Might
save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! As often as I say I have
escaped from one calamity, I fall into a worse. By Allah, this is an
abominable death to die! Would Heaven I had died a decent death and
been washed and shrouded like a man and a Moslem. Would I had been
drowned at sea, or perished in the mountains! It were better than to
die this miserable death!" And on such wise I kept blaming my own
folly and greed of gain in that black hole, knowing not night from
day, and I ceased not to ban the Foul Fiend and to bless the
Almighty Friend. Then I threw myself down on the bones of the dead and
lay there, imploring Allah's help, and in the violence of my despair
invoking death, which came not to me, till the fire of hunger burned
my stomach and thirst set my throat aflame, when I sat up and
feeling for the bread, ate a morsel and upon it swallowed a mouthful
of water.
After this, the worst night I ever knew, I arose, and exploring the,
cavern, found that it extended a long way with hollows in its sides,
and its floor was strewn with dead bodies and rotten bones that had
lain there from olden time. So I made myself a place in a cavity of
the cavern, afar from the corpses lately thrown down, and there slept.
I abode thus a long while, till my provision was like to give out, and
yet I ate not save once every day or second day, nor did I drink
more than an occasional draught, for fear my victual should fail me
before my death. And I said to myself: "Eat little and drink little.
Belike the Lord shall vouchsafe deliverance to thee!" One day as I sat
thus, pondering my case and bethinking me how I should do when my
bread and water should be exhausted, behold, the stone that covered
the opening was suddenly rolled away and the light streamed down
upon me. Quoth I: "I wonder what is the matter. Haply they have
brought another corpse." Then I espied folk standing about the mouth
of the pit, who presently let down a dead man and a live woman,
weeping and bemoaning herself, and with her an ampler supply of
bread and water than usual. I saw her and she was a beautiful woman,
but she saw me not. And they closed up the opening and went away. Then
I took the leg bone of a dead man and, going up to the woman, smote
her on the crown of the head, and she cried one cry and fell down in a
swoon. I smote her a second and a third time, till she was dead,
when I laid hands on her bread and water and found on her great plenty
of ornaments and rich apparel, necklaces, jewels and gold trinkets,
for it was their custom to bury women in all their finery. I carried
the vivers to my sleeping place in the cavern side and ate and drank
of them sparingly, no more than sufficed to keep the life in me,
lest the provaunt come speedily to an end and I perish of hunger and
thirst.
Yet did I never wholly lose hope in Almighty Allah. I abode thus a
great while, killing all the live folk they let down into the cavern
and taking their provisions of meat and drink, till one day, as I
slept, I was awakened by something scratching and burrowing among
the bodies in a corner of the cave and said, "What can this be?"
fearing wolves or hyenas. So I sprang up, and seizing the leg bone
aforesaid, made for the noise. As soon as the thing was ware of me, it
fled from me into the inward of the cavern, and lo! it was a wild
beast. However, I followed it to the further end, till I saw afar
off a point of light not bigger than a star, now appearing and then
disappearing. So I made for it, and as I drew near, it grew larger and
brighter, till I was certified that it was a crevice in the rock,
leading to the open country, and I said to myself: "There must be some
reason for this opening. Either it is the mouth of a second pit such
as that by which they let me down, or else it is a natural fissure
in the stonery." So I bethought me awhile, and nearing the light,
found that it came from a breach in the back side of the mountain,
which the wild beasts had enlarged by burrowing, that they might enter
and devour the dead and freely go to and from. When I saw this, my
spirits revived and hope came back to me and I made sure of life,
after having died a death. So I went on, as in a dream, and making
shift to scramble through the breach, found myself on the slope of a
high mountain overlooking the salt sea and cutting off all access
thereto from the island, so that none could come at that part of the
beach from the city. I praised my Lord and thanked Him, rejoicing
greatly and heartening myself with the prospect of deliverance.
Then I returned through the crack to the cavern and brought out
all the food and water I had saved up, and donned some of the dead
folk's clothes over my own. After which I gathered together all the
collars and necklaces of pearls and jewels and trinkets of gold and
silver set with precious stones and other ornaments and valuables I
could find upon the corpses, and making them into bundles with the
graveclothes and raiment of the dead, carried them out to the back
of the mountain facing the seashore, where I established myself,
purposing to wait there till it should please Almighty Allah to send
me relief by means of some passing ship. I visited the cavern daily,
and as often as I found folk buried alive there, I killed them all
indifferently, men and women, and took their victual and valuables and
transported them to my seat on the seashore.
Thus I abode a long while till one day I caught sight of a ship
passing in the midst of the clashing sea swollen with dashing billows.
So I took a piece of a white shroud I had with me, and tying it to a
staff, ran along the seashore making signals therewith and calling
to the people in the ship, till they espied me, and hearing my shouts,
sent a boat to fetch me off. When it drew near, the crew called out to
me, saying, "Who art thou, and how camest thou to be on this mountain,
whereon never saw we any in our born days?" I answered: "I am a
gentleman and a merchant who hath been wrecked and saved myself on one
of the planks of the ship, with some of my goods. And by the
blessing of the Almighty and the decrees of Destiny and my own
strength and skill, after much toil and moil I have landed with my
gear in this place, where I awaited some passing ship to take me off."
So they took me in their boat, together with the bundles I had made of
the jewels and valuables from the cavern, tied up in clothes and
shrouds, and rowed back with me to the ship, where the captain said to
me: "How camest thou, O man, to yonder place on yonder mountain behind
which lieth a great city? All my life I have sailed these seas and
passed to and fro hard by these heights, yet never saw I here any
living thing save wild beasts and birds." I repeated to him the
story I had told the sailors, but acquainted him with nothing of
that which had befallen me in the city and the cavern, lest there
should be any of the islandry in the ship.
Then I took out some of the best pearls I had with me and offered
them to the captain, saying: "O my lord, thou hast been the means of
saving me off this mountain. I have no ready money, but take this from
me in requital of thy kindness and good offices.-But he refused to
accept it of me, saying: "When we find a shipwrecked man on the
seashore or on an island, we take him up and give him meat and
drink, and if he be naked we clothe him, nor take we aught from
him- nay, when we reach a port of safety, we set him ashore with a
present of our own money and entreat him kindly and charitably, for
the love of Allah the Most High." So I prayed that his life be long in
the land and rejoiced in my escape, trusting to be delivered from my
stress and to forget my past mishaps, for every time I remembered
being let down into the cave with my dead wife I shuddered in horror.
Then we pursued our voyage and sailed from island to island and
sea to sea till we arrived at the Island of the Bell which
containeth a city two days' journey in extent, whence after a six
days' ran we reached the Island Kala, hard by the land of Hind. This
place is govemed by a potent and puissant King, and it produceth
excellent camphor and an abundance of the Indian rattan. Here also
is a lead mine. At last by the decree of Allah we arrived in safety at
Bassorah town, where I tarried a few days, then went on to Baghdad
city, and finding my quarter, entered my house with lively pleasure.
There I forgathered with my family and friends, who rejoiced in my
happy return and give me joy of my safety. I laid up in my storehouses
all the goods I had brought with me, and gave alms and largess to
fakirs and beggars and clothed the widow and the orphan. Then I gave
myself up to pleasure and enjoyment, returning to my old merry mode of
rife.
Such, then, be the most marvelous adventures of my fourth voyage,
but tomorrow, if you will kindly come to me, I will tell you that
which befell me in my fifth voyage, which was yet rarer and more
marvelous than those which forewent it. And thou, O my brother Sindbad
the Landsman, shalt sup with me as thou art wont. (Saith he who
telleth the tale): When Sindbad the Seaman had made an end of his
story, he called for supper, so they spread the table and the guests
ate the evening meal, after which he gave the porter a hundred
dinars as usual, and he and the rest of the company went their ways,
glad at heart and marveling at the tales they had heard, for that each
story was more extraordinary than that which forewent it. The porter
Sindbad passed the night in his own house, in all joy and cheer and
wonderment, and as soon as morning came with its sheen and shone, he
prayed the dawn prayer and repaired to the house of Sindbad the
Seaman, who welcomed him and bade him sit with him till the rest of
the company arrived, when they ate and drank and made merry and the
talk went round amongst them. Presently, their host began the
narrative of
The Fifth Voyage Of Sindbad The Seaman.
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