ES-SINDIBAD OF THE SEA 159

And he whose death. is decreed to take place in one land will
not die in any land but that.

Send not thy messenger on an errand of importance ; for the
soul hath no faithful minister save itself.

I departed upon the raft along the river, medi-
tating upon what might be the result of my case,
and proceeded to the place where the river
entered beneath the mountain. I propelled the
raft into that place, and became in intense dark-
ness within it, and the raft continued to carry
me in with the current to a narrow place
beneath the mountain, where the sides of the
raft rubbed against the sides of the channel of
the river, and my head rubbed against the roof
of the channel. I was unable to return thence,
and I blamed myself for that which I had done,
and said, “If this place become narrower to the
raft, it will scarcely pass through it, and it
cannot return: so I shall perish in this place
in sorrow, inevitably!” I threw myself upon
my face on the raft, on account of the narrow-
ness of the channel of the river, and ceased
not to proceed, without knowing night from
day, by reason of the darkness in which I was
involved beneath that mountain, together with my
terror and fear for myself lest I should perish. In
this state I continued my course along the river,