60 THE THIRD VOYAGE OF

No one understandeth their language or their
state, they shun the society of men, have yellow
eyes, and black faces, and are of small size, the
height of each one of them being four spans.
They climbed up the cables, and severed them
with their teeth, and they severed all the ropes
of the vessel in every part; so the vessel in-
clined with the wind, and stopped at their
mountain, and on their coast. ‘Then, having
seized all the merchants and the other passengers,
and landed upon the island, they took the vessel
with the whole of its contents, and went their
way with it.

They left us upon the island, the vessel became
concealed from us, and we knew not whither
they went with it. And while we were upon
that island, eating of its fruits and its herbs, and
drinking of the rivers that were there, lo, there
appeared to us an inhabited house in the midst
of the island. We therefore went towards it,
and walked to it; and, behold, it was a pavilion,
with lofty angles, with high walls, having an
entrance with folding doors, which were open;
and the doors were of ebony. We entered this
pavilion, and found in it a wide, open space, like
a wide, large court, around which were many
lofty doors, and at its upper end was a high and