Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries; Tales -- Arab countries
"I had scarcely placed myself in this posture when the eagles came. Each
of them seized a piece of meat, and one of the strongest having taken me
up, with the piece of meat to which I was fastened, carried me to his
nest on the top of the mountain. The merchants immediately began their
shouting to frighten the eagles; and when they had obliged them to quit
their prey, one of them came to the nest where I was. He was much
alarmed when he saw me; but recovering himself, instead of inquiring how
I came thither, began to quarrel with me, and asked, why I stole his
goods. 'You will treat me,' replied I, 'with more civility when you know
me better. Do not be uneasy, I have diamonds enough for you and myself,
more than all the other merchants together. What ever they have, they
owe to chance, but I selected for myself in the bottom of the valley
those which you see in this bag.' I had scarcely done speaking, when the
other merchants came crowding about us, much astonished to see me; but
they were much more surprised when I told them my story.
"They conducted me to their encampment, and there having opened my bag,
they were surprised at the largeness of my diamonds, and confessed that
in all the courts which they had visited they had never seen any of such
size and perfection. I prayed the merchant who owned the nest to which I
had been carried (for every merchant had his own), to take as many for
his share as he pleased. He contented himself with one, and that the
least of them; and when I pressed him to take more, 'No,' said he, 'I am
very well satisfied with this, which is valuable enough to save me the
trouble of making any more voyages, and will raise as great a fortune as
I desire.'
"I spent the night with the merchants, to whom I related my story a
second time, for the satisfaction of those who had not heard it. I could
not moderate my joy when I found myself delivered from the danger I have
mentioned. I thought myself in a dream, and could scarcely believe
myself out of danger.
"The merchants had thrown their pieces of meat into the valley for
several days, and each of them being satisfied with the diamonds that
had fallen to his lot, we left the place the next morning and travelled
near high mountains, where there were serpents of a prodigious length,
which we had the good fortune to escape. We took shipping at the first
port we reached, and touched at the isle of Roha, where the trees grow
that yield camphire. This tree is so large, and its branches so thick,
that one hundred men may easily sit under its shade. The juice of which
the camphire is made exudes from a hole bored in the upper part of the
tree, is received in a vessel, where it thickens to a consistency, and
becomes what we call camphire; after the juice is thus drawn out, the
tree withers and dies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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