ES-SINDIBAD OF THE SEA 103

most of the people of the city came, and pro-
ceeded to console my companion for the loss
of his wife and for himself. They began to
prepare her body for burial according to their
custom, brought a bier, and carried the woman
in it, with all her apparel and ornaments and
wealth, taking the husband with them; and
they went forth with them to the outside of
the city, and came to a place in the side of
a mountain by the sea. They advanced to a
spot there, and lifted up from it a great stone,
and there appeared, beneath the place of this,
a margin of stone, like the margin of a well.
Into this they threw down that woman; and,
lo, it was a great pit beneath the mountain.
Then they brought the man, tied him beneath
his bosom by a rope of fibres of the palm-
tree, and let him down into the pit. They
also let down to him a great jug of sweet
water, and seven cakes of bread; and when
they had let him down, he loosed himself
from the rope, and they drew it up, and cov-
ered the mouth of the pit with that great
stone as it was before, and went their ways,
leaving my companion with his wife in the
pit. So I said within myself, “By Allah,

this death is more grievous than the first
t