mountain, and, when they came thither, took up a great stone, which covered the mouth of a very deep pit, and let down the corpse with all its apparel and jewels. Then the husband, embracing his kindred and friends, suffered himself to be put into another open coffin without resistance, with a pot of water and seven little loaves, and was let down in the same manner as his wife. The mountain was pretty long, and reached to the sea. The ceremony being ever, they covered the hole again with the stone, and returned. It is needless, gentlemen, for me to tell you that I was the only melancholy spectator of this funeral; whereas the rest were scarcely moved at it, the thing being customary to them. I could not forbear speaking my thoughts of this matter to the king: Sir, says I, I cannot enough admire the strange custom in this country of burying the living with the dead. I have been a great traveller, and seen many countries, but never heard of so cruel a law. What do you mean, Sindbad? says the king; it is a common law. I shall be interred with the queen my wife, if she die first. But, sir, says I, may I presume to demand of your majesty, if strangers be obliged to observe this law? Without doubt, replies the king, (smiling at the occasion of my question,) they are not exempted, if they be married in this island. I went home very melancholy at this answer, from fear of my wife dying first, and lest I should be interred alive with her, which occasioned me very mortifying reflections. But there was no remedy; I must have patience, and submit to the will of God. I trembled, however, at every little indisposition of my wife: but, alas! in a little time my fears came upon me all at once; for she fell sick, and died in a few days. You may judge of my sorrow: to be interred alive seemed to me as deplorable an end as to be devoured by cannibals. But I must submit; the king and all his court would honour the funeral with their presence, and the most considerable people of the city would do the like. When all was ready for the ceremony, the corpse was put into a coffin, with all the jewels and magnificent apparel. The cavalcade was begun; and, as second actor in this doleful tragedy, I went next the corpse, with my eyes full of tears, bewailing my deplorable fate. Before I came to the mountain, I made an essay on the minds of the spectators; I addressed myself to the king in the first place, and then to all those who were round me, and, bowing before them to the earth to kiss the border of their garments, I prayed them to have compassion upon me. Consider, said I, that I am a stranger, and ought not to be subject to this rigorous law, and that I have another wife and children in my own country[Footnote: He was a Mahometan, and this sect allows polygamy.]. It was to no purpose for me to speak thus, for no soul was moved at it; on the contrary, they made haste to let down my wife's corpse into the pit, and put me down the next moment in an open coffin, with a