The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor - Page 1

Author: Laurence Housman

Led by the desire to associate with other races, and to buy and sell for gain - for the soul is prone to evil - I departed from Baghdad with many precious bales, and set sail from El-Basrah in a large ship on which a company of other merchants embarked in like fashion.

For many days we had a pleasant journey among the islands, and all went well with us until, on reaching the wider sea beyond, a mighty wind came up against us. The sails were rent, the masts were blown away, we sprang a leak, and slowly the vessel began to sink. We gave ourselves up for lost, and, indeed, when the waves passed over us and we sank, many perished. But, in the seething turmoil, it was my good fortune to be cast against a broad plank, which I seized and held. Others were struggling for life near by and I was able to draw some of them to me. Sore buffeted as we were by wind and wave we mounted that plank and sat astride of it. At dawn on the following day the sea cast us like dead men upon an island, where, for many hours, we lay exhausted.

That night we slept upon the shore, and in the morning we arose strengthened and invigorated. When we had broken our fast we set ourselves to explore the island, and had not gone far in this before we came to a great building. As we stood at the door of this, wondering who dwelt within, a party of naked men came out, and without a word, seized us and led us into a spacious apartment, where we found ourselves standing before their King. He commanded us to be seated, and they brought us food of a strange kind, such as we had never seen. My companions ate largely of this, but my stomach revolted at it and I ate but little - a thing which preserved me from a terrible fate. For, as my companions ate, they became mad with a ravenous hunger, and ate more and more. Presently they were given coco-nut oil to drink, and, when they had swallowed it, their eyes rolled in their heads, and they continued to eat it a frenzy horrible to behold.