Notwithstanding my fainting, continued Sindbad, the ill-natured old
fellow kept fast about my neck, but opened his legs a little to give
me time to recover my breath. When I had done so, he thrust one of
his feet against my stomach, and struck me so rudely on the side
with the other, that he forced me to rise up against my will. Being
got up, he made me walk under the trees, and forced me now and then
to stop, to gather and eat fruit such as we found. He never left me
all day, and when I lay down to rest me by night, he laid himself
down with me, holding always fast about my neck. Every morning he
pushed me to make me awake, and afterwards obliged me to get up and
walk, and pressed me with his feet. You may judge, then, gentlemen,
what trouble I was in, to be loaded with such a burden, which I
could by no means rid myself from.
One day I found in my way several dry calabashes that had fallen
from a tree; I took a large one, and after cleaning it, pressed into
it some juice of grapes, [36] which abounded in the island; having
filled the calabash, I set it in a convenient place, and coming
hither again some days after, I took up my calabash, and setting it
to my mouth, found the wine to be so good, that it made me presently
not only forget my sorrow, but I grew vigorous, and was so
light-hearted, that I began to sing and dance as I walked along.
The old man perceiving the effects which this drink had upon me, and
that I carried him with more ease than I did before, made a sign to
me to give him some of it. I gave him the calabash, and the liquor
pleasing his palate, he drank it all off. There being enough of it
to fuddle him, he became drunk immediately, and the fumes getting up
into his head, he began to sing after his manner, and to dance with
his breech upon my shoulders. His jolting made him vomit, and he
loosened his legs from about me by degrees; so finding that he did
not press me as before, I threw him upon the ground, where he lay
without motion, and then I took up a great stone, with which I
crushed his head to pieces.
I was extremely rejoiced to be freed thus for ever from this cursed
old fellow, and walked upon the bank of the sea, where I met the
crew of a ship that had cast anchor to take in water to refresh
themselves. They were extremely surprised to see me, and to hear the
particulars of my adventures. You fell, said they, into the hands of
the old man of the sea, and are the first that ever escaped
strangling by him. He never left those he had once made himself
master of, till he destroyed them, and he had made this island
famous by the number of men he has slain; so that the merchants and
mariners who landed upon it dared not to advance into the island but
in numbers together.
After having informed me of those things, they carried me with them
to the ship: the captain received me with great satisfaction when
they told him what had befallen me. He put out again to sea, and
after some days’ sail we arrived at the harbour of a great city,
whose houses were built with good stone.
One of the merchants of the ship who had taken me into his
friendship, obliged me to go along with him, and carried me to a
place appointed for a retreat for foreign merchants. He gave me a
great bag, and having recommended me to some people of the town, who
used to gather cocoa-nuts, he desired them to take me with them to
do the like: “Go,” said he, “follow them, and do as you see
them do, and do not separate from them, otherwise you endanger your
life.” Having thus spoke, he gave me provisions for the journey,
and I went with them.
We came to a great forest of trees, extremely straight and tall, and
their trunks so smooth, that it was not possible for any man to
climb up to the branches that bore the fruit. All the trees were
cocoa-trees, and when we entered the forest, we saw a great number
of apes, of several sizes, that fled as soon as they perceived us,
and climbed up to the top of the trees with surprising swiftness.
Scheherazade would have gone on, but day appearing, prevented her,
and next night she resumed her discourse as follows: