The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01Anonymous
General
The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01
Anonymous
Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Folklore -- Arab countries
After having testified their joy at my escaping so many dangers,
they brought me the best of what they had to eat; and the
captain, seeing that I was in rags, was so generous as to give me
one of his own suits. We were at sea for some time, touched at
several islands, and at last landed at that of Salabat, where
grows sanders, a wood of great use in physic. We entered the
port, and came to anchor. The merchants began to unload their
goods, in order to sell or exchange them. In the meantime the
captain came to me, and said, Brother, I have here a parcel of
goods that belonged to a merchant, who sailed some time on board
this ship; and he being dead, I design to dispose of them for the
benefit of his heirs, when I know them. The bales he spoke of lay
on the deck; and showing them to me, he says, There are the
goods; I hope you will take care to sell them, and you shall have
factorage. I thanked him for giving me an opportunity to employ
myself, because I hated to be idle. The clerk of the ship took an
account of all the bales, with the names of the merchants to whom
they belonged; and when he asked the captain in whose name he
should enter those he gave me the charge of, Enter them, says the
captain, in the name of Sindbad the sailor. I could not hear
myself named without some emotion; and looking steadfastly on the
captain, I knew him to be the person who, in my second voyage,
had left me in the island, where I fell asleep by a brook, and
set sail without me, or sending to see for me. But I could not
remember him at first, he being so much altered since I saw him.
As for him, who believed me to be dead, I could not wonder at his
not knowing me. But captain, says I, was the merchant's name, to
whom those bales belonged, Sindbad? Yes, replies he, that was his
name; he came from Bagdad, and embarked on board my ship at
Balsora. One day when we landed at an island to take in water and
other refreshments, I know not by what mistake, I set sail
without observing that he did not re- embark with us; neither I
nor the merchants perceived it till four hours after. We had the
wind in our stern, and so fresh a gale, that it was not then
possible for us to tack about for him. You believe him then to be
dead, said I? Certainly answered he. No, captain, said I; look
upon me, and you may know that I am Sindbad, whom you left in the
desert island: I fell asleep by a brook, and, when I awaked, I
found all the company gone. At these words the captain looked
steadfastly upon me; and, having considered me attentively, knew
me at last, embraced me, and said, God be praised that fortune
has supplied my defect. There are your goods, which I always took
care to preserve, and to make the best of them at every port
where I touched. I restore them to you, with the profit I have
made on them. I took them from him, and at the same time
acknowledged how much I owed to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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