220 oe The Second Voyage of

 

desert island. And after having passed the night in this condition,
the bird really flew away next morning, as soon as it was day, and
carried me so high that I could not see the earth. Then she des-
cended all of a sudden, with so much rapidity that I lost my senses 3
but when the roc was settled, and I found myself upon the ground, I
speedily untied the knot, and had scarcely done so when the bird,
having taken up a serpent of a monstrous length in her bill,
flew away.

The place where she 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 strewn with
diamonds, some of. which were of surprising bigness. I took a great
deal of pleasure in looking at 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; they were 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 most suitable. 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 straight, 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 meantime,
put me into such extreme fear that you may easily imagine I did
not sleep: When day appeared the serpents retired, and I came