Sinbad the Sailor ; | #&. 219

TI 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 Hoven? it to be a. white bow! 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 voc, 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