144 THE FIFTH VOYAGE OF

And afterwards he gave me the key of a place
in his house, and said to me, “Put here these
nuts that thou hast remaining with thee, and
go forth every day with the party as thou hast
done this day; and of what thou _bringest,
separate the bad, and sell them, and make use
of their price; and the rest keep in thy pos-
session in this place. Perhaps thou wilt ac-
cumulate of them what will aid thee to make
thy voyage.” So I replied, ‘‘ Thy reward is due
from God, whose name be exalted!” I did as
he told me, and continued every day to fill the
bag with stones, and to go forth with the people,
and do as they did. They used to commend
me one to another, and to guide me to the
tree upon which was abundance of fruit; and
I ceased not to lead this life for a length of
time, so that I collected a great quantity of good
cocoa-nuts, and I sold a great quantity, the price
of which became a large sum in my possession.
I bought everything that I saw and that pleased
me, my time was pleasant, and my good fortune
increased throughout the whole city.

I remained in this state for some time; after
which, as I was standing by the seaside, lo, a
vessel arrived at that city, and cast anchor by
the shore. In it were merchants, with their