Then the she-roc let
fall her rock, which was bigger than that of her mate, and as
Destiny had decreed, it fell on the poop of the ship and crushed it,
the rudder flying into twenty pieces. Whereupon the vessel foundered
and all and everything on board were cast into the main. As for me,
I struggled for sweet life till Almighty Allah threw in my way one
of the planks of the ship, to which I clung and bestriding it, fell
a-paddling with my feet.
Now the ship had gone down hard by an island in the midst of the
main, and the winds and waves bore me on till, by permission of the
Most High, they cast me up on the shore of the island, at the last
gasp for toil and distress and half-dead with hunger and thirst. So
I landed more like a corpse than a live man, and throwing myself
down on the beach, lay there awhile till I began to revive and recover
spirits, when I walked about the island, and found it as it were one
of the garths and gardens of Paradise. Its trees, in abundance
dight, bore ripe-yellow fruit for freight, its streams ran clear and
bright, its flowers were fair to scent and to sight, and its birds
warbled with delight the praises of Him to whom belong Permanence
and All-might.
Pages:
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481