The following evening the porter whose name was Sinbad returned to the house of the merchant whose name he shared. “Eat well, my friend,” said the merchant, “and I will continue to tell you how I paid for my wealth with pain and suffering. This is the story of my third voyage and it is even more terrible than the ones that preceded it."
Once again, I grew weary of luxury. I could not rest well in my soft bed of silken cushions, with a belly full of fine food. Perhaps I was too restless living a life of ease, or perhaps I was too greedy for yet more gold. Gold is a tempting thing - look around my halls - you will see it brings not only luxury, but the respect of your friends and family. I was not content. I wanted as much gold as I could get.
And so, in my rashness, I took to the seas once more.
As before, I joined a ship of merchants, and we travelled from port to port trading here and there in cloths, spices, dried fruits, and trinkets of gold. For the first two weeks, we enjoyed fine weather, but on the fifteenth day of our voyage a gale blew up, and tossed our boat here and there. When the storm settled, we sighted land. The captain gathered us passengers on deck, and said:
“The wind has got the better of us, and driven us off course. Destiny has brought us to this shore. I fear it is a savage place. We shall soon find out the fate that Allah, in his wisdom, has decided for us.”
And he was right, for not long after we came up close, oh too close, to the inhabitants of that land. For here lived a tribe of apes. These creatures were not content like most of their brethren to live in the tree tops. Instead they carried spears and made mischief on land and sea. They dropped boats from the tops of the cliffs, and then jumped down into them. An armada of ape-ships sailed swiftly after us. Soon these hairy pirates were scaling up the sides of our ship. They cut the ropes of our rigging so that we could not sail. We dared not fight them, as they were too numerous. Instead we ourselves jumped overboard, into the sea, and swam for the shore.
Those of us who had survived the attack gathered on the beach. We decided it was too dangerous to linger there, and we moved inland. We spied a castle on top of a hill. I roused my comrades.
“Brothers, let us climb up to the fortress and put ourselves at the mercy of those who live there. Whatever fate awaits us on the hill is bound to be less cruel than being torn apart by apes.”
The others agreed, and followed me up the steep track. At the top we walked through a massive entrance and found ourselves in an empty courtyard. We could see no living thing, though there were signs that life had been there recently. The fire still smoked. A smell of roast meat lingered in the air, and the remains of a feast of mutton lay around. We decided to lie down and rest our weary limbs.
We were woken by a minor earthquake. The ground trembled and the solid stone walls of the castle shook: Thud, Thud, Thud… Soon the cause of all this disturbance came through the doorway - it was a monster of a man as tall and broad as a date tree. His eyes burned like coals of fire, his teeth were like boar’s tusks, his nails like lion’s claws, and his mouth gaped like a well. We ran this way and that, looking for places to hide - but there were none. He stooped down and picked me up by the arm. I dangled in front of his eyes, and he felt me as a butcher feels a sheep he is about to slaughter. But there was no meat on me. I eat little when I travel by sea, and I was all skin and bone. He put me down and picked up another of our crew. He, poor man, was fatter than I, and made a nice meal for the giant. Having satisfied his stomach, he lay down and fell asleep.
“Stop this weeping,” I said to the others. “What use is it to tear at your clothes and pour dirt in your hair? Do not mourn your own deaths yet. If Allah wills it so, we shall escape an awful fate and avenge our comrade. We are not prisoners here. The door of the castle lies open."
The men were in two minds. Which fate did they fear most? To be eaten by a giant or torn apart by apes? In the end my view prevailed - we could not just sit and wait to be eaten for breakfast. We returned to the shore and found that The Almighty had taken pity on us. Our ship, although badly damaged had run aground. The apes were not such great sailors after all
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