I was very much surprised, said Sindbad, to find the ship gone. I
got up, and looked about every where, 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, one afflicting thought being
succeeded by another still more afflicting. 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 any thing that could give me
hopes. 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 provisions 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 occasioned by a bird of a monstrous size, that came flying
towards 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 alighted,
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 [14] 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 actually flew away next morning,
as soon as it was day, and carried me so high that I could not see
the earth; she afterwards 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
scarce done so when the bird, having taken up a serpent of a
monstrous length in her bill, flew away. [15]
The place where it 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 strewed with
diamonds, some of which were of a surprising bigness. I took a great
deal of pleasure to look upon 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; that was, 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 mast commodious. 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 strait, 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 mean time,
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 scarce shut my eyes, when
something, that fell by me with great noise, awaked 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 always looked upon it to be a fable, when I heard mariners and
others discourse of the valley of diamonds, and of the stratagems
made use of by merchants to get jewels from thence; but then 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 any where 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. [16] 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 then I changed my
mind, for the falling in of those pieces of meat put me in hopes of
a way of saving my life. --Here day began to appear, which obliged
Scheherazade to break off; but she went on with it next night as
follows: