ES-SINDIBAD OF THE SEA 153

aloes-wood, and Kaméree aloes-wood. And in
that island is a gushing spring of crude am-
bergris, which floweth like wax over the side of
that spring through the violence of the heat of
‘ the sun, and spreadeth upon the sea-shore; and
the monsters of the deep come up from the
sea and swallow it, and descend with it into
-the sea; but it becometh hot in their stomachs,
therefore they eject it from their mouths
into the sea, and it congealeth on the sur-
face of the water. Upon this, its colour and
its qualities become changed, and the waves
cast it up on the shore of the sea: so the
travellers and merchants who know it take it
and sell it. But as to the crude ambergris
that is not swallowed, it floweth over the
side of that fountain, and congealeth upon
the ground; and when the sun shineth upon
it, it melteth, and from it the odour of the
whole of that valley becometh like the odour
of musk. Then, when the sun withdraweth
from it, it congealeth again. The place where-
in is this crude ambergris no one can enter:
no one can gain access to it: for the mountain
surroundeth that island.

We continued to wander about the island, divert-
ing ourselves with a view of the good things which