Sinbad the Sailor & 241

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upon thyself by thy cursed avarice. Ah! unfortunate wretch,
shouldst thou not rather have stayed at home, and quietly enjoyed
the fruits of thy labour?’

Such were the vain complaints with which. I made the cave
echo, beating my head and breast out of rage and despair, and
abandoning myself to the most afflicting thoughts. Nevertheless, I
must tell you that, instead of calling death to my assistance in that
‘miserable condition, I felt still an inclination to live, and to do all
I could to prolong my days. I went groping about, with my nose
stopped, for the bread and water that was in my coffin, and’took
some of it. Though the darkness of the cave was so great that
I could not distinguish day and night, yet I always found my coffin
again, and the cave seemed to be more spacious and fuller of corpses
than it appeared to me at first. I lived for some days upon my
‘bread and water, which being all used up at last I prepared
for death.

As I was thinking of death, I heard something walking, and .
blowing or panting as it walked. I advanced towards that side from
whence I heard the noise, and upon my approach the thing puffed
and blew harder, as if it had been running away from me. I
followed the noise, and the thing seemed to stop sometimes, but
always fled and blew as I approached. I followed it so-long and
so far that at last I perceived a light resembling a star; I went
on towards that light, and’ sometimes lost sight of it, but always
found it again, and at last discovered that it came through a hole
in the rock large enough for a man to get out at.

Upon this 1 stopped.some time to rest myself, being much
fatigued with pursuing this discovery so fast. ~Afterwards coming
up to the hole I went out at it, and found myself upon the shore
of the sea. I leave you to guess the excess of my joy; it was
such that I could scarce persuade myself of its being real.

But when I had recovered from. my SUIDESS and was convinced

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