Like many others in the world, there was a master mariner. Having had
many losses and misfortunes in his life he no longer made any voyages,
but every day went down to the seaside for amusement, and every day
he met a large serpent, and every day he said to it:
"God has given thy life to thee; live then."
This master mariner lived upon what his wife and daughter earned by
sewing. One day the serpent said to him:
"Go to such a shipbuilder's, and order a ship of so many tons
burden. Ask the price of it, and then double the price they tell
you." [98]
He does as the serpent told him, and the next day he goes down to
the shore, and he tells the serpent that he has done as he had told
him. The serpent then bids him go and fetch twelve sailors, very strong
men, and to double whatever they shall ask. He goes and does what he
was told to do. He returns to the serpent and tells him that he has
twelve men. The serpent gives him all the money which he needed to
pay for the ship. The shipbuilder is astonished to find that he is
paid so large a sum of money in advance by this miserable man, but he
hastens to finish his work as quickly as possible. The serpent again
bids him have made in the hold of the ship a large empty space and a
huge chest, and tells him to bring this down himself. He brings it,
and the serpent gets into it. The ship was quickly ready, he embarks
the chest in the ship, and they set out.
This captain used to go every day to the serpent, but the sailors did
not know what he went (into the hold) to do, nor what there was in
the chest. The ship had already gone some distance, and nobody knew
its destination. One day the serpent told the captain that there was
going to be a frightful storm, that the earth and sky would mingle
together, and that at midnight a large black bird would pass over
the ship, and that it must be killed, and (he tells him) to go and
see if there is any sportsman among his sailors. He goes and asks
the sailors if there is any sportsman among them. [99]