16 THE FIRST VOYAGE OF

exalted!) had created; and I had made for my-
self a staff from those trees, to lean upon it.
Thus I remained until I walked, one day, upon
the shore of the island, and there appeared unto
me an indistinct object in the distance. I
imagined that it was a wild beast, or one of the
beasts of the sea; and I walked towards it,
ceasing not to gaze at it; and, lo, it was a
mare, of superb appearance, tethered in a part
of the island by the sea-shore. I approached
her; but she cried out against me with a great
cry, and I trembled with fear of her, and was
about to return, when, behold, a man came forth
from beneath the earth, and he called to me
and pursued me, saying to me, “Who art thou,
and whence hast thou come, and what is the
cause of thine arrival in this place?” So I
answered him, “O my master, know that I am.
a stranger, and I was in a ship, and was sub-
merged in the sea with certain others of the
passengers ; but God supplied me with a wooden
bowl, and I got into it, and it bore me along
until the waves cast me upon this island.” And
when he heard my words, he laid hold of my
hand and said to me, “Come with me.” I
therefore went with him, and he descended with
me into a grotto beneath the earth, and con-