160 THE SIXTH VOYAGE OF

which sometimes widened and at other times
contracted; but the intensity of the darkness
wearied me excessively, and slumber overcame
me in consequence of the violence of my distress.
So I lay upon my face on the raft, which ceased
not to bear me along while I slept, and knew
not whether the time was long or short.

At length I awoke, and found myself in the
light; and, opening my eyes, I beheld an ex-
tensive tract, and the raft tied to the shore of
an island, and around me a company of Indians
and [people like] Abyssinians. When they saw
. that I had risen, they rose and came to me, and
spoke to me in their language; but I knew not
what they said, and imagined that it was a dream,
and that this occurred in sleep, by reason of the
-violence of my distress and yexation. And when
they spoke to me, and I understood not their
speech, and returned them not an answer, a man
among them advanced to me, and said to me, in
the Arabic language, ‘‘ Peace be on thee, O our
brother! What art thou, and whence hast thou
come, and what is the cause of thy coming to this
place? We are people of the sown lands and the
fields, and we came to irrigate our fields and our
sown lands, and found thee asleep on the raft:
so we laid hold upon it, and tied it here by us,