Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 3.djvu/8

Sticks, or Boards, I faw likewiſe other Fiſhes about a Cubit in Length, that had Heads like Owls.

As I was one Day at the Port, after my Return, a Ship arriv’d, and as ſoon as ſhe caſt Anchor, they began to unload her, and the Merchants on Board order’d their Goods to be carry’d into the Magazine; as I caſt my Eye upon ſome Bales, and look’d to the Name, I found my own, and perceived the Bales to be the ſame that I had embark’d at Balſora. I alſo knew the Captain, but being perſwaded that he believ’d me to be drown’d, I went and ask’d him whoſe thoſe Bales? He reply’d That they belong’d to a Merchant of Bagdad, call’d Sindbad, who came to Sea with him; but one Day, being near an Iſland, as we thought, he went aſhoar with feveral other Paſſengers upon this ſuppoſed Iſland, which was only a monſtrous Whale, that lay aſleep upon the Surface of the Water, but as ſoon he felt the Heat of the Fire, they had kindled on his Back, to dreſs ſome Victuals, began to move, and div’d under Water, moſt of the Perſons who were upon him periſh’d, and among them unfortunate Sindbad. Thoſe Bales belong’d to him, and I am reſolv’d to trade with them, until I meet with ſome of his Family, to whom I may return the Profit. Captain, ſays I, I am that Sindbad, whom you thought to be dead, and thoſe Bales are mine. Here Scheherazade ſtop’d, till next Morning, and went on as follows,

SINDBAD, purſuing his Story, ſays to the Company. When the Captain heard me ſpeak thus: O Heaven, ſays he, who can ever truſt now a Days, there’s no Faith left among Men. I ſaw Sindbad periſh with my own Eyes, and the Paſſengers on Board ſaw it as well as I, and yet you tell me, you are that Sindbad, What Impudence this is? To look on you, one would take you to be a Man of Probity, and yet you tell a horrible Falſhood, in order to poſſeſs your ſelf of what does not belong to you. Have Patience, Captain, reply’d I, do me the Favour to hear