The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01Anonymous
General
The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01
Anonymous
Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Folklore -- Arab countries
Gentlemen, says he, you long, without doubt, to know how, after
being shipwrecked five times, and escaping so many dangers, I
could resolve again to try my fortune, and expose myself to new
hardships. I am astonished at it myself when I think on it, and
must certainly have been induced to it by my stars. But, be that
as it will, after a year's rest I prepared for a sixth voyage,
notwithstanding the prayers of my kindred and friends, who did
all that was possible to prevent me. Instead of taking my way by
the Persian gulph, I travelled once more through several
provinces of Persia and the Indies, and arrived at a sea-port,
where I embarked on board a ship, the captain of which was
resolved on a long voyage. It was very long, indeed, but at the
same time so unfortunate, that the captain and pilot lost their
course, so that they knew not where they were. They found it at
last, but we had no ground to rejoice. We were all seized with
extraordinary fear, when we saw the captain quit his post, and
cry out. He threw off his turban, pulled the hair off his beard,
and beat his head like a madman. We asked him the reason, and he
answered, that he was in the most dangerous place in all the sea:
a rapid current carries the ship along with it, and we shall all
perish in less than a quarter of an hour. Pray to God to deliver
us from this danger; we cannot escape it, if he do not take pity
on us. At these words he ordered the sails to be changed; but all
the ropes broke, and the ship, without any possibility of helping
it, was carried by the current to the foot of an inaccessible
mountain, where she was run ashore, and broken to pieces, yet so
as we saved our lives, our provisions, and the best of our goods.
This being over, the captain says to us, God has now done what he
pleased; we may every man dig our grave here, and bid the world
adieu; for we are all in so fatal a place, that none shipwrecked
here did ever return to their homes again. His discourse
afflicted us mortally, and we embraced one another with tears in
our eyes, bewailing our deplorable lot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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