ES-SINDIBAD OF THE SEA 139

sea to the distance of a mile. They passed the
night, and I with them; and when the morning
came, they returned in the boat to the city, and
landed, and each of them went to his occupa-
tion. Such hath been always their custom; every
night ; and to every one of them who remaineth
behind in the city. during the night, the apes
come, and they destroy him. In the day, the
apes go forth from the city, and eat of the fruits
in the gardens, and sleep in the mountains until
the evening, when they return to the city. And
this city is in the furthest parts of the country
of the blacks...Among the most wonderful of
the events that: happened to me in the treat-
ment that I met with from. its inhabitants, was
this. A person of the party with whom I passed
the night said to me, ““O my master, thou art
a stranger in this country. Art thou skilled in
any art with which thou mayest occupy thyself?”
And I answered him, ‘No, by Allah, O my
brother: I am acquainted with no art, nor do
I know how to make anything. I was a mer-
chant, a person of wealth and fortune, and I
had a ship, my own property, laden with abun-
dant wealth and goods; but it was wrecked in
the sea, and all that was in it sank, and I
escaped not drowning but by the permission