ES-SINDIBAD OF THE SEA 109

burned my stomach, and thirst inflamed me;
when I sat, and felt for the bread, and ate a
little of it, and I swallowed after it a little
water. Then I rose and stood up, and walked
about the sides of the cavern; and I found that
it was spacious sideways, and with vacant
cavities; but upon its bottom were numerous
dead bodies and rotten bones, that had lain
there from old times. And upon this I made
for myself a place in the side of the cavern,
remote from the fresh corpses, and there I
slept.

At length my provision became greatly dimi-
nished, little remaining with me. During each
day, or in more than a day, I had eaten but
once, and drunk one draught, fearing the ex-
haustion of the water and food that was with
me before my death; and I ceased not to do
thus until I was sitting one day, and while I
sat, meditating upon my case, thinking what I
should do when my food and water were ex-
hausted, lo, the mass of rock was removed from
_its place, and the light beamed down upon me.
So I said, “‘What can be the matter?” And,
behold, the people were standing at the top of
the pit, and they let down a dead man with
his wife with him alive, and she was weeping