91-4-2 - The Fourth Voyage of Sindbaad of the Sea-2 (7 of 11) :
Sindbaad is Burried With His Dead Wife

On the 553rd Night contd ...

Now only a short time passed that my wife fell ill, and she remained so for a few days. Then she died. Many people came to console me and her family. The King also came to console me. Then they brought a woman to wash her, they washed her, and adorned her in her best attire and jewelry and took her to the same mountain and threw her in the same pit. I was crying out among them that "I am a foreigner and I am unable to endure your custom; and if I have ever known about your this custom, I would not have married here." But they would not hear what I said nor they paid any attention to my words. They bound me by force tying with me seven cakes of bread and a jug of sweet water and let me down into the pit. Then asked me to loosen the ropes, but I did not do that, so they threw the rope in, put a large stone on the mouth of the well and went their ways."

On the 554th Night

"When they had left me in the well, I looked around me and I found myself in a great cavern beneath that mountain among many dead bodies. All dead bodies in that cavern were smelling foul. I again blamed myself for this situation. I did not know when the day broke and when the night fell. I survived myself by eating very little only whenever I was very hungry fearing the exhaustion of food and water I had with me. I asked myself - "What tempted me to marry in this city? And every time I say that I have escaped from a calamity, I fall into a greater calamity than before. O Allaah, I do not want to die this way."

I kept praying Allaah to save me or to kill me, but none was in sight. So I rose and started inspecting the cavern. I found it spacious with many vacant places, so I made a place for me moving a bit far from the dead bodies and there I slept. I ate only once and drank only one draught lest my supplies finish. One day I was thinking about what I would do when my supplies would finish, that the mass of rock was removed from its place and a light fell upon me. I saw some people were standing at the top of the pit and they were letting down a dead man with his wife alive, and she was weeping and crying for herself. They let down a large quantity of food and water with her. I had seen the woman but she had not seen me. Then they covered the mouth of the pit and went their ways.

I took a long bone of a dead man and went to that woman and hit her in her skull, so she fell unconscious. Then I struck her several times until she died. So I took her bread and water and whatever else she had - abundance of ornaments and apparel, necklaces and jewels etc, I sat down at my own place and proceeded to eat the food. I ate only to sustain myself lest it finishes soon.

I remained in that cavern for a length of time. Whenever they came to bury the person, I killed the accompanied person and took his or her food to subsist upon. One day as I was sleeping, I heard some noise in a side of the cavern. I ran after it carrying that long bone in my hand but I found that the noise was only from a wild beast. But I followed it to the upper part of the cavern, and I saw the light at the other end. So I thought either it was the second mouth of this cave or it was a fissure in this place. So I proceeded towards that light and found it was a large hole in the back of that mountain. The wild beasts used to come there through that hole to eat the dead bodies. My mind was quieted, my heart was at ease seeing this. Then I managed to come out through this hole to the other side of the mountain, on the shore of the sea. This mountain formed a barrier between the sea on one side and the island and the city on the other side, and no one could gain access to it. So I prayed God and rejoiced exceedingly.

I then came back into the cavern, took the remaining food and water and ornaments and clothes of the dead and came out again. I clad myself in some of the clothes in addition to those I had on me and I took abundance of things that were on the dead and stood upon the shore of the sea. Everyday I checked the cavern for some new arrival for my food, drink and material and went back to the shore. Thus I had taken all the ornaments of the dead and tied them in the clothes of the dead. Thus I lived for a long time."

On the 555th Night

"I didn't have to wait for long, and one day I saw a vessel passing along the coast so I took a white cloth, tied to a staff and ran along the coast until they saw me. They therefore approached me, and heard my voice and sent to me a boat with a party of people. When they came to me, they asked me - "Who are you and why are you sitting at this place and how did you arrive at this mountain, because we have never seen in our life time who has come here?" I said - "I am a merchant. The vessel in which I was traveling, wrecked and I escaped holding a plank."

They took me with them in the boat and embarked all that I had taken from the cavern, tied up in the garments, and took me to the ship. The Master of the ship also asked me - "How did you arrive at this place which has a great mountain and a city behind it. All my life I have passed through this place but I have never seen anything except wild beasts and birds." I said - "I am a merchant. I was in a great ship and it was wrecked, and all my merchandise also was submerged. I placed myself on a plank of the ship and my Destiny brought me here where I have been waiting for somebody to take me with him."

I did not tell them all the events which happened to me in this city fearing that someone might be there from this city in the ship. Then I presented a considerable portion of my property to the Master of the ship saying - "You have been the means of my escape from here, so accept this little gift from me, but he did not accept anything from me. He said - "We take nothing from anyone and when we see any person from a wrecked ship on the shore of the sea or on an island we just take him with us, feed him, give him drink and clothe him and when we arrive at the port, we give him some of our property as a present." So I prayed for him.

We traveled from sea to sea, island to island, and rejoiced at my safety; but whenever I thought about my living on that island, with my wife, in the cavern, my reasoning left me. Then we came to the Island of the Bell, then we came to the Island of the Kela, near India, in six days time. Here Indians grow Indian camphor and cane. Then we came to the city of Basaraa where I stayed for a few days and then I came to the city of Bagadaad, and to my home. Everybody was very happy to see me, made lots of inquiries to which I answered patiently. They congratulated on my safe return. I distributed presents, gifts and alms.

Such were the most wonderful events of my fourth voyage. Now tomorrow I will tell you the account of my fifth voyage. Let us have food now and then come tomorrow to hear the account of my fifth voyage." Then all had food and drink, Sindbaad gave Hammaal 100 Deenaars as usual and he came back home. Next day again Sindbaad the Hammaal went to Sindbaad the Seaman. He welcomed him, waited for others, offered food to all and started telling the account of his fifth voyage."

Contd on 8th Page