The Valley of Diamonds (The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor)
There was a valley in which I found myself was
much deeper and
was narrow too, and was also surrounded by
the mountains which reached at the height of the clouds, and was
much erect and
rocky that there was none of the way to climb
up to their
sides. As I walked about, in search
for some way of escaping from this place, I
observed that the ground was covered with
diamonds, some of them of a huge unexpected size.
This view gave me a great pleasure, but my
glee was soon ended when I also saw a
numerous snakes which were so long and so
large that the smallest of them could have
swallowed an elephant very easily. Luckily
for me they appeared to hide in the caves
during the day-time, and they only came out by
the night-time, because of their enemy
-the roc.
All the day long I moved up and down through
the valley,
and when it grew dark I went into a cave, and having blocked the entrance with a stone, I ate
the left of the
food and lay down to sleep, but all through the
night the serpents crawled to and fro, hissing
terribly, so that I could barely close my eyes
with fear. I was much thankful when the morning
appeared, and when I guessed the silence
that the snakes had moved back to their
place I
came quickly out of my cave and moved up
and down the valley again, kicking the
diamonds out of my way, for I
felt that they were in fact worthless things to a man
in this situation.
At last, being very tired, I sat down
upon a rock, but I had hardly closed my eyes
when I was felt that something fell to
the ground with a thud close beside me.
It was a huge piece of fresh meat, and as I
looked at it few more pieces rolled over
beside me. I had always thought
that the stories of the sailors told about the famous
valley of diamonds, and of the way which
some of the merchants had work out for getting at the
precious stones, were mere travelers' tales
invented to give more joy to the hearers, but
now I came to know that they were surely true.
These merchants came to the valley at the time
when the eagles, which keep their habitant in the
rocks, had hatched their young ones. The merchants
then threw great chunk of meat into the valley.
These, falling with so much force upon the
diamonds, were sure to take up some of the
precious stones with them, when the eagles
pounced upon the meat and carried it off to
their nests to feed their hungry broods.
Then the merchants, scared away the parent
eagles with shouts and outcries and would secure
their treasures. Until this moment I had looked
upon the valley, for it seemed me no
possibility of getting out of it alive, but now
I took courage and began to search for the means
for
escaping from this place. I began to pick up all the
big diamonds I could find and kept them very carefully
in the leather wallet which had held my
requirements; I tied it to my belt. I
then chose the piece of meat which seemed most
suitable to my purpose, and with the aid of my
turban tied it very tightly to my back; this done I
laid down upon my face and waited for the coming of
the eagles.
I soon heard the noise of the flapping of their
wings above me, and I was sure that one of them seize upon my piece of meat, and
also to me
with it, and took flight slowly towards his nest, into
which he presently dropped me. Luckily for me
the merchants were on the watch, and setting up
their usual outcries they rushed to the nest
scaring away the eagle. Their amazement was
great when they saw me, and also their anger, and with one
deal they ill-treated me for having robbed them of their usual
profit. I spoke to the one who seemed
most angry, I said: "I am sure, if you knew
all that I have suffered, you would show more
kindness towards me, and as for diamonds, I have
enough diamonds here for you and me and
all your companion."
So saying this I showed the diamonds to him. The others all
crowded round me, wondering at my adventures and
approving the device by which I had escaped from
the valley, and when they had led me to their
camp and examined my diamonds, they assured me
that in all the years that they had carried on
their trade they had seen no stones to be
compared with them for size and beauty.
I found that each merchant chose a particular
nest, and took his chance of what he might find
in it. So I begged the one who owned the nest to
which I had been carried to take as much as he
would of my treasure, but he pleased himself
with one stone, and that by no means the
largest, assuring me that with such a stone his
luck was made, and he need not work hard any more. I
stayed with the merchants for few days, and then
as they were sailing homewards I gladly
joined them.
Our way lay across high mountains infected with
frightful snakes, but we had the good luck to
escape them and came at last to the seashore.
After that we sailed to the isle of Rohat where the
camphor trees grow to such a size that a hundred
men could shelter under one of them easily.
The sap flows from an opening made high up in
the tree into a vessel hung there to receive it,
and soon hardens into the substance called
camphor, but the tree itself shrink up and dies
when it has been treated like this so.
In this same island we saw the rhinoceros,
an animal which is smaller than the elephant
and larger than the buffalo. It has one horn
which is too huge which is solid, but has a
furrow from the base to the tip. Upon it is
traced in white lines the figure of a man.
The rhinoceros fights
with the elephant, and holding him up with his
horn carries the elephant off upon his head, but becoming
blind with the blood of his enemy, he falls
to the ground, and then comes the roc,
and clutches them both and
takes them to feed his young ones. This doubtless
amazed you, but if you do not believe my
tale go to Rohat and see for your own self.
For the fear of tiring you I pass over in silence
many other wonderful things which we saw in this
island. Before we left I exchanged one of my
diamonds for much goodly stock by which I
profited greatly on our homeward way. At last we
reached Balsora, after that I rushed to Baghdad,
where my first action was to donate large sums
of money to the poor, after which I settled
down to enjoy calmly the riches I had expand
with so much toil and pain.
Having thus introduced the adventures of
Sinbad's second
voyage, he again gave a hundred tinsels to Hindbad, inviting him to come again on the
following next day and hear how he get on upon his
third voyage. The other guests also leave to
their homes, but all returned at the same
hour next day, including Hindbad, whose
daily life of hard work and poverty had
already begun to seem to him like a bad
dream. Again after the feast, Sinbad
maintain the attention
of his guests and began the story of his third
voyage.