Part-9 THE SECOND VOYAGE OF SINBAD THE SAILOR : story for children

I designed, after my first voyage, to spend the rest of my days at
Bagdad; but it was not long ere I grew weary of a quiet life. My
inclination to trade revived. I bought goods suited to the commerce
I intended, and put to sea a second time, with merchants of known
probity. We embarked on board a good ship, and after recommending
ourselves to God, set sail. We traded from island to island, and
exchanged commodities with great profit. One day we landed on an
island covered with several sorts of fruit trees, but so unpeopled,
that we could see neither man nor beast upon it. We went to take a
little fresh air in the meadows, and along the streams that watered
them. Whilst some diverted themselves with gathering flowers, and
others with gathering fruits, I took my wine and provisions, and
sat down by a stream betwixt two great trees, which formed a
curious shape. I made a very good meal, and afterwards fell asleep.
I cannot tell how long I slept, but when I awoke the ship was gone.

I was very much surprised to find the ship gone. I got up and
looked about everywhere, and could not see one of the merchants who
landed with me. At last I perceived the ship under sail, but at
such a distance that I lost sight of her in a very little time.

I leave you to guess at my melancholy reflections in this sad
condition. I was ready to die with grief: I cried out sadly, beat
my head and breast, and threw myself down upon the ground, where I
lay some time in a terrible agony. I upbraided myself a hundred
times for not being content with the produce of my first voyage,
that might well have served me all my life. But all this was in
vain, and my repentance out of season.

At last I resigned myself to the will of God; and not knowing what
to do, I climbed up to the top of a great tree, from whence I
looked about on all sides to see if there was anything that could
give me hope. When I looked towards the sea, I could see nothing
but sky and water, but looking towards the land I saw something
white; and, coming down from the tree, I took up what provision I
had left and went towards it, the distance being so great that I
could not distinguish what it was.

When I came nearer, I thought it to be a white bowl of a prodigious
height and bigness; and when I came up to it I touched it, and
found it to be very smooth. I went round to see if it was open on
any side, but saw it was not, and that there was no climbing up to
the top of it, it was so smooth. It was at least fifty paces round.

By this time the sun was ready to set, and all of a sudden the sky
became as dark as if it had been covered with a thick cloud. I was
much astonished at this sudden darkness, but much more when I found
it was occasioned by a bird, of a monstrous size, that came flying
toward me. I remembered a fowl, called roc, that I had often heard
mariners speak of, and conceived that the great bowl, which I so
much admired, must needs be its egg. In short, the bird lighted,
and sat over the egg to hatch it. As I perceived her coming, I
crept close to the egg, so that I had before me one of the legs of
the bird, which was as big as the trunk of a tree. I tied myself
strongly to it with the cloth that went round my turban, in hopes
that when the roc flew away next morning she would carry me with
her out of this desert island. And after having passed the night in
this condition, the bird really flew away next morning, as soon as
it was day, and carried me so high that I could not see the earth.
Then she descended all of a sudden, with so much rapidity that I
lost my senses; but when the roc was settled, and I found myself
upon the ground, I speedily untied the knot, and had scarcely done
so when the bird, having taken up a serpent of a monstrous length
in her bill, flew away.

The place where she left me was a very deep valley, encompassed on
all sides with mountains, so high that they seemed to reach above
the clouds, and so full of steep rocks that there was no
possibility of getting out of the valley. This was a new
perplexity, so that when I compared this place with the desert
island from which the roc brought me, I found that I had gained
nothing by the change.

As I walked through this valley I perceived it was strewn with
diamonds, some of which were of surprising bigness. I took a great
deal of pleasure in looking at them; but speedily I saw at a
distance such objects as very much diminished my satisfaction, and
which I could not look upon without terror; they were a great
number of serpents, so big and so long that the least of them was
capable of swallowing an elephant. They retired in the day-time to
their dens, where they hid themselves from the roc, their enemy,
and did not come out but in the night-time.

I spent the day in walking about the valley, resting myself at
times in such places as I thought most suitable. When night came on
I went into a cave, where I thought I might be in safety. I stopped
the mouth of it, which was low and straight, with a great stone, to
preserve me from the serpents, but not so exactly fitted as to
hinder light from coming in. I supped on part of my provisions, but
the serpents, which began to appear, hissing about in the meantime,
put me into such extreme fear that you may easily imagine I did not
sleep. When day appeared the serpents retired, and I came out of
the cave trembling. I can justly say that I walked a long time upon
diamonds without feeling an inclination to touch any of them. At
last I sat down, and notwithstanding my uneasiness, not having shut
my eyes during the night, I fell asleep, after having eaten a
little more of my provisions; but I had scarcely shut my eyes when
something that fell by me with great noise awakened me. This was a
great piece of fresh meat, and at the same time I saw several
others fall down from the rocks in different places.

I had always looked upon it as a fable when I heard mariners and
others discourse of the valley of diamonds, and of the stratagems
made use of by some merchants to get jewels from thence; but now I
found it to be true. For, in reality, those merchants come to the
neighbourhood of this valley when the eagles have young ones, and
throwing great joints of meat into the valley, the diamonds, upon
whose points they fall, stick to them; the eagles, which are
stronger in this country than anywhere else, pounce with great
force upon those pieces of meat, and carry them to their nests upon
the top of the rocks to feed their young with, at which time the
merchants, running to their nests, frighten the eagles by their
noise, and take away the diamonds that stick to the meat. And this
stratagem they make use of to get the diamonds out of the valley,
which is surrounded with such precipices that nobody can enter it.

I believed till then that it was not possible for me to get out of
this abyss, which I looked upon as my grave; but now I changed my
mind, for the falling in of those pieces of meat put me in hopes of
a way of saving my life.

I began to gather together the largest diamonds that I could see,
and put them into the leathern bag in which I used to carry my
provisions. I afterwards took the largest piece of meat I could
find, tied it close round me with the cloth of my turban, and then
laid myself upon the ground, with my face downward, the bag of
diamonds being tied fast to my girdle, so that it could not
possibly drop off.

I had scarcely laid me down before the eagles came. Each of them
seized a piece of meat, and one of the strongest having taken me
up, with a piece of meat on my back, carried me to his nest on the
top of the mountain. The merchants fell straightway to shouting, to
frighten the eagles; and when they had obliged them to quit their
prey, one of them came to the nest where I was. He was very much
afraid when he saw me, but recovering himself, instead of inquiring
how I came thither, he began to quarrel with me, and asked why I
stole his goods. 'You will treat me,' replied I, 'with more
civility when you know me better. Do not trouble yourself; I have
diamonds enough for you and myself too, more than all the other
merchants together. If they have any, it is by chance; but I chose
myself in the bottom of the valley all those which you see in this
bag'; and having spoken those words, I showed them to him. I had
scarcely done speaking, when the other merchants came trooping
about us, much astonished to see me; but they were much more
surprised when I told them my story. Yet they did not so much
admire my stratagem to save myself as my courage to attempt it.

They took me to the place where they were staying all together, and
there having opened my bag, they were surprised at the largeness of
my diamonds, and confessed that in all the courts where they had
been they had never seen any that came near them. I prayed the
merchant to whom the nest belonged (for every merchant had his
own), to take as many for his share as he pleased. He contented
himself with one, and that too the least of them; and when I
pressed him to take more, without fear of doing me any injury,
'No,' said he, 'I am very well satisfied with this, which is
valuable enough to save me the trouble of making any more voyages
to raise as great a fortune as I desire.'

I spent the night with those merchants, to whom I told my story a
second time, for the satisfaction of those who had not heard it. I
could not moderate my joy when I found myself delivered from the
danger I have mentioned. I thought I was in a dream, and could
scarcely believe myself to be out of danger.

The merchants had thrown their pieces of meat into the valley for
several days, and each of them being satisfied with the diamonds
that had fallen to his lot, we left the place next morning all
together, and travelled near high mountains, where there were
serpents of a prodigious length, which we had the good fortune to
escape. We took ship at the nearest port and came to the Isle of
Roha, where the trees grow that yield camphor. This tree is so
large, and its branches so thick, that a hundred men may easily sit
under its shade. The juice of which the camphor is made runs out
from a hole bored in the upper part of the tree, is received in a
vessel, where it grows thick, and becomes what we call camphor; and
the juice thus drawn out the tree withers and dies.

There is in this island the rhinoceros, a creature less than the
elephant, but greater than the buffalo; it has a horn upon its nose
about a cubit long; this horn is solid, and cleft in the middle
from one end to the other, and there are upon it white lines,
representing the figure of a man. The rhinoceros fights with the
elephant, runs his horn into him, and carries him off upon his
head; but the blood of the elephant running into his eyes and
making him blind, he falls to the ground, and then, strange to
relate, the roc comes and carries them both away in her claws to be
food for her young ones.

Here I exchanged some of my diamonds for good merchandise. From
thence we went to other isles, and at last, having touched at
several trading towns of the main land, we landed at Balsora, from
whence I went to Bagdad. There I immediately gave great alms to the
poor, and lived honourably upon the vast riches I had gained with
so much fatigue.