The old man perceiving the effects which this drink had upon me, and that I carried him with more ease than I did before, made a sign to me to give him some of it. I gave him the calabash, and the liquor pleasing his palate, he drank it all off. There being enough of it to fuddle him, he became drunk immediately, and the fumes getting up into his head, he began to sing after his manner, and to dance with his breech upon my shoulders. His jolting made him vomit, and he loosened his legs from about me by degrees; so finding that he did not press me as before, I threw him upon the ground, where he lay without motion, and then I took up a great stone, with which I crushed his head to pieces. I was extremely rejoiced to be freed thus for ever from this cursed old fellow, and walked upon the bank of the sea, where I met the crew of a ship that had cast anchor to take in water to refresh themselves. They were extremely surprised to see me, and to hear the particulars of my adventures. You fell, said they, into the hands of the old man of the sea, and are the first that ever escaped strangling by him. He never left those he had once made himself master of, till he destroyed them, and he had made this island famous by the number of men he has slain; so that the merchants and mariners who landed upon it dared not to advance into the island but in numbers together. After having informed me of those things, they carried me with them to the ship: the captain received me with great satisfaction when they told him what had befallen me. He put out again to sea, and after some days’ sail we arrived at the harbour of a great city, whose houses were built with good stone. One of the merchants of the ship who had taken me into his friendship, obliged me to go along with him, and carried me to a place appointed for a retreat for foreign merchants. He gave me a great bag, and having recommended me to some people of the town, who used to gather cocoa-nuts, he desired them to take me with them to do the like: “Go,” said he, “follow them, and do as you see them do, and do not separate from them, otherwise you endanger your life.” Having thus spoke, he gave me provisions for the journey, and I went with them. We came to a great forest of trees, extremely straight and tall, and their trunks so smooth, that it was not possible for any man to climb up to the branches that bore the fruit. All the trees were cocoa-trees, and when we entered the forest, we saw a great number of apes, of several sizes, that fled as soon as they perceived us, and climbed up to the top of the trees with surprising swiftness. Scheherazade would have gone on, but day appearing, prevented her, and next night she resumed her discourse as follows: EIGHTY-FIFTH NIGHT.