Know, O my brothers, that after my return from my third voyage and my gathering with my friends, and after I had forgotten all my perils and hardships in the enjoyment of ease and comfort and rest, I was visited one day by a company of merchants. They sat with me and spoke of foreign travel and trade, and the old evil man within me yearned to go with them and enjoy the sight of strange lands. I longed for the company of the various peoples of mankind and for trade and profit. So I resolved to travel with them. I bought all the necessaries for a long voyage and great quantities of costly goods—more than ever before—and transported them from Baghdad to Bassorah, where I took ship with these merchants, who were among the chief men of the town. We set out, trusting in the blessing of Almighty Allah. With a favourable breeze and the best of conditions we sailed from island to island and sea to sea, until one day a contrary wind rose against us.

The captain cast out his anchors and brought the ship to a standstill, fearing she would founder in mid-ocean. Then we all fell to prayer and humbled ourselves before the Most High. But as we were praying, a furious squall struck us that tore the sails to shreds. The anchor cable snapped, and the ship foundered. We were cast into the sea, goods and all. I kept myself afloat by swimming for half the day. When I had given myself up for lost, the Almighty brought into my way one of the planks of the ship, and I and some other merchants scrambled onto it.

When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty first night

So I turned back as he directed me and followed the road to the right, sometimes running in fear and sometimes walking slowly to rest, until I was out of the old man's sight. By this time the sun had set and darkness came on, so I sat down to rest. I would have slept, but sleep would not come to me that night, for fear and hunger and fatigue. When the night was half spent, I rose and walked on until day broke in all its beauty and the sun rose over the heads of the lofty hills and across the low gravelly plains. Now I was weary and hungry and thirsty, so I ate my fill of herbs and grasses that grew on the island—they kept me alive and filled my stomach. After that I set out again and travelled all that day and the next night, sustaining myself with roots and herbs. I did not stop walking for seven days and nights, until the morning of the eighth day.

When I caught sight of a faint object in the distance. I made towards it, though my heart trembled from all I had suffered before, and behold, it was a company of men gathering pepper grains. As soon as they saw me, they hurried up to me and surrounded me, saying, "Who are you and where do you come from?" I replied, "Know, O people, that I am a poor stranger," and I told them my situation and all the hardships and perils I had suffered.

When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty second night

After I told them what had become of my companions, they made me sit with them until they finished their work. Then they brought me some good food, which I ate gratefully, for I was hungry, and I rested awhile. After that they took ship with me and, carrying me to their island home, brought me before their King. He returned my greeting and received me honourably and asked me about my situation. I told him everything that had happened to me from the day I left Baghdad, and he and his courtiers marvelled greatly at my adventures. He bade me sit by him, then called for food. I ate with him what sufficed me and washed my hands and returned thanks to Almighty Allah for all His blessings, praising and glorifying Him. Then I left the King and walked about the city for pleasure.

I found it wealthy and populous, with abundant market streets well stocked with food and merchandise, full of buyers and sellers. I rejoiced at having reached so pleasant a place and took my ease there after my hardships. I made friends with the townspeople, and it was not long before I became more honoured and favoured by them and their King than any of the great men of the realm. Now I saw that all the citizens, both great and small, rode fine horses, expensive and well-bred, but without saddles or harnesses. This amazed me, and I said to the King, "Why, O my lord, do you not ride with a saddle? It provides ease for the rider and increases his power." "What is a saddle?" he asked. "I have never seen or used such a thing in my life." I answered, "With your permission I will make you a saddle, that you may ride on it and see how comfortable it is." He said, "Do so." So I said to him, "Furnish me with some wood," and when it was brought, I found a clever carpenter. Sitting with him, I showed him how to make the saddle frame, drawing the shape for him in ink on the wood.

Then I took wool and carded it and made felt, and, covering the saddle frame with leather, I stuffed it and polished it and attached the girth and stirrup straps. After that I found a blacksmith and described to him the design of the stirrups and bridle bit. He forged a fine pair of stirrups and a bit, filed them smooth, and tinned them. Moreover, I attached silk fringes to them and fitted bridle straps to the bit. Then I fetched one of the best royal horses and saddled and bridled him, hung the stirrups to the saddle, and led him to the King. The thing pleased him, and he thanked me. Then he mounted and rejoiced greatly in the saddle and rewarded me handsomely for my work. When the King's Wazir saw the saddle, he asked me to make one like it, and I did. Furthermore, all the nobles and officers of state came to me asking for saddles. So I fell to making saddles, having taught the craft to the carpenter and blacksmith, and selling them to all who wanted them, until I amassed great wealth and became highly honoured and greatly favoured by the King and his household and nobles. I lived thus until one day, as I sat with the King in all respect and contentment, he said to me, "Know, O such a one, that you have become one of us, dear as a brother. We hold you in such regard and affection that we cannot part with you nor let you leave our city. Therefore I wish your obedience in a certain matter, and I will not have you refuse me."

I answered, "O King, what is it you desire of me? Far be it from me to refuse you in anything, for I am indebted to you for many favours and bounties and much kindness. And, praised be Allah, I have become one of your servants." He said, "I have a mind to marry you to a fair, clever, and agreeable wife who is as wealthy as she is beautiful. Thus you may be made a citizen of our land and dwell with us. I will lodge you with me in my palace. So do not oppose me nor refuse me in this." When I heard these words, I was ashamed and remained silent, unable to answer him, overcome by bashfulness before him. He asked, "Why do you not reply to me, O my son?" I answered, "O my master, it is yours to command." So he summoned the Kazi and witnesses and married me straightway to a lady of noble birth and high pedigree—wealthy in money and means, the flower of an ancient house, of surpassing beauty and grace, and the owner of farms and estates and many dwellings.

When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty third night

But whatever is destined for a man, that must come to pass, and none knows what shall befall him. We lived thus for a great while, until Almighty Allah deprived one of my neighbours of his wife. He was a friend of mine. When I heard the wailing of the mourners, I went to condole with him on his loss and found him in a terrible state—full of trouble and weary in body and spirit. I condoled with him and tried to comfort him, saying, "Do not mourn for your wife, who has now found the mercy of Allah. The Lord will surely give you a better wife in her place, and your name shall be great and your life shall be long in the land, God willing." But he wept bitterly and replied, "O my friend, how can I marry another wife, and how shall Allah give me a better than she, when I have only one day left to live?" "O my brother," I said, "come to your senses and do not announce the glad tidings of your own death, for you are well and sound and in good health." "By your life, O my friend," he rejoined, "tomorrow you will lose me and never see me again until the Day of Resurrection."

I asked, "How so?" He answered, "This very day they bury my wife, and they bury me with her in one tomb. It is our custom that if the wife dies first, the husband is buried alive with her, and likewise if the husband dies first, the wife is buried alive with him, so that neither may enjoy life after losing their mate." "By God," I cried, "this is a most vile and abominable custom and not to be endured!" Meanwhile, behold, most of the townspeople came in and began condoling with my friend for his wife and for himself. Presently, they laid the dead woman out, as was their custom, and, placing her on a bier, carried her and her husband out of the city until they came to a place on the side of a mountain at the end of the island by the sea. There they raised a great rock and uncovered the mouth of a stone-lined pit or well, leading down into a vast underground cavern that ran beneath the mountain. They threw the corpse into this pit. Then, tying a rope of palm fibres under the husband's armpits, they lowered him into the cavern, along with a great pitcher of fresh water and seven cakes for sustenance.

When he reached the bottom, he loosened himself from the rope, and they drew it up. Then they closed the mouth of the pit with the great stone and returned to the city, leaving my friend in the cavern with his dead wife. When I saw this, I said to myself, "By God, this manner of death is worse than the first!" And I went to the King and said to him, "O my lord, why do you bury the living with the dead?" He replied, "It has been the custom, as you must know, of our ancestors and our ancient Kings from time immemorial. If the husband dies first, we bury his wife with him, and likewise if the wife dies first, we bury the husband with her, so that we do not separate them, whether alive or dead." I asked, "If the wife of a foreigner like myself dies among you, do you deal with him as with that man?" He answered, "Yes, we do with him exactly as you have seen." When I heard this, my heart was like to burst from the violence of my dismay and fear for myself. My mind became confused, and I felt as if I were in a vile prison. I hated their society, for I went about in terror lest my wife should die before me and they bury me alive with her. However, after a while I comforted myself, thinking, "Perhaps I shall die first, or perhaps I shall have returned to my own land before she dies, for none knows who shall go first and who shall go last."

Then I tried to divert my mind from this thought with various activities, but it was not long before my wife fell sick and complained and took to her bed. After a few days she departed to the mercy of Allah. Then the King and all the people came, as was their custom, to condole with me and her family and to console us for her loss, and also to condole with me for my own death. Then the women washed her and, arraying her in her finest raiment and golden ornaments, necklaces, and jewellery, laid her on the bier and carried her to the mountain. There they lifted the cover of the pit and cast her in. After that all my intimates and acquaintances and my wife's relatives came around me, to bid me farewell in my lifetime and console me for my own death. I cried out among them, saying, "Almighty Allah never made it lawful to bury the living with the dead! I am a stranger, not one of your people, and I cannot bear your custom! Had I known it, I never would have married among you!" They did not hear me and paid no heed to my words. Instead, they seized me by force and bound me, then let me down into the cavern with a large vessel of sweet water and seven cakes of bread, according to their custom. When I reached the bottom, they called down to me to loose myself from the cords, but I refused. So they threw the cords down on me and, closing the mouth of the pit with the stones, went away.

When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty fourth night

And so I remained in that dark hole, blaming myself for my foolishness and greed for gain, not knowing day from night. I did not stop cursing the Foul Fiend and blessing the Almighty Friend. Then I threw myself down on the bones of the dead and lay there, imploring Allah's help. In the violence of my despair, I invoked death, but it would not come. The fire of hunger burned my stomach and thirst set my throat ablaze. Then I sat up, felt for the bread, ate a morsel, and swallowed a mouthful of water. After this, the worst night I ever experienced, I arose and explored the cavern. I found that it extended far with hollows in its walls, and its floor was strewn with dead bodies and rotten bones that had lain there since ancient times. I made myself a place in a cavity of the cavern, far from the corpses that had been recently thrown down, and slept there. I remained thus for a long time, rationing my food carefully. I ate no more than once every day or every other day, and I drank only occasionally, for fear my provisions would fail before my death. I said to myself, "Eat little and drink little, perhaps the Lord will grant you deliverance!"

One day, as I sat there considering my situation and wondering what to do when my bread and water ran out, behold, the stone that covered the opening was suddenly rolled away and light streamed down into the cavern. I said, "I wonder what is happening—perhaps they have brought another corpse." Then I saw people standing at the mouth of the pit. They let down a dead man and a living woman, weeping and lamenting, along with a larger supply of bread and water than usual. I saw her and she was a beautiful woman, but she did not see me. They closed the opening and went away. Then I took the leg bone of a dead man and, going up to the woman, struck her on the crown of the head. She cried out once and fell into a swoon. I struck her a second and third time until she was dead. Then I seized her bread and water and found great quantities of ornaments and rich apparel on her—necklaces, jewels, and gold trinkets, for it was their custom to bury women in all their finest things. I carried the food to my sleeping place in the cavern and ate and drank of it sparingly, consuming only enough to keep myself alive, lest the provisions come to an end and I perish of hunger and thirst. Yet I never wholly lost hope in Almighty Allah. I remained thus for a great while, killing all the living people they let down into the cavern and taking their food and possessions. Until one day, as I slept, I was awakened by something scratching and burrowing among the bodies in a corner of the cave. I said to myself, "What can this be? I feared wolves or hyenas.

So I sprang up, seized the leg bone, and made for the noise. As soon as the creature was aware of me, it fled deeper into the cavern. And behold, it was a wild beast! I followed it to the far end until I saw a point of light in the distance, no bigger than a star, appearing and disappearing. I made for it, and as I drew closer, it grew larger and brighter. I became certain that it was a crevice in the rock, leading to the open air. I said to myself, "There must be some purpose to this opening. Either it is the mouth of a second pit like the one by which they lowered me, or it is a natural fissure in the stone." I considered this awhile, and as I drew near to the light, I found that it came from a breach in the back of the mountain, which wild beasts had enlarged by burrowing so they could enter and devour the dead and move freely back and forth. When I saw this, my spirits revived and hope returned to me. I felt sure I would live, after I had come so close to death.

So I went forward, as in a dream, and managed to scramble through the breach. I found myself on the slope of a high mountain, overlooking the salt sea. The mountain cut off all access from the island to this part of the beach, so no one from the city could reach here. I praised my Lord and thanked Him, rejoicing greatly and taking heart at the prospect of deliverance. Then I returned through the crevice to the cavern and brought out all the food and water I had saved. I put on some of the dead folk's clothes over my own. After that I gathered all the necklaces of pearls and jewels and trinkets of gold and silver set with precious stones and other ornaments and valuables I could find on the corpses. I made them into bundles with the grave clothes and raiment of the dead, and carried them out to the back of the mountain facing the sea shore. There I established myself, determined to wait until it pleased Almighty Allah to send me relief by means of a passing ship. Every day I visited the cavern, and whenever I found people buried alive there, I killed them all—both men and women—and took their food and valuables and transported them to my place by the sea shore. Thus I remained for a long while.

When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty fifth night

I answered, "I am a gentleman and a merchant who has been shipwrecked and saved myself on one of the ship's planks, along with some of my goods. By the blessing of the Almighty and the decrees of Destiny, and through my own strength and skill, after much toil I have landed with my goods in this place, where I awaited a passing ship to rescue me." So they took me in their boat, along with the bundles I had made of the jewels and valuables from the cavern, tied up in clothes and shrouds. They rowed back with me to the ship, and the captain said to me, "How came you, O man, to that place on that mountain, behind which lies a great city? All my life I have sailed these seas and passed back and forth near these heights, yet never have I seen any living thing here save wild beasts and birds." I repeated to him the story I had told the sailors, but I said nothing of what had happened to me in the city and the cavern, lest any of the island people were on the ship. Then I took out some of the finest pearls I had and offered them to the captain, saying, "O my lord, you have been the means of saving me from this mountain. I have no money with me, but take this as payment for your kindness and good service."

But he refused, saying, "When we find a shipwrecked man on the sea shore or on an island, we take him aboard and give him food and drink. If he is naked, we clothe him. We take nothing from him. On the contrary, when we reach a safe port, we set him ashore with gifts of our own money and treat him with kindness and charity, for the love of Allah the Most High." So I prayed that his life be long in the land, and I rejoiced in my escape, trusting that I would be delivered from my suffering and could forget my past ordeals. For every time I remembered being lowered into the cave with my dead wife, I shuddered in horror. Then we continued our voyage, sailing from island to island and sea to sea, until we arrived at the Island of the Bell, which contains a city two days' journey in extent.

From there, after a six-day journey, we reached the Island Kala, close by the land of Hind. This place is governed by a powerful King. It produces excellent camphor and an abundance of Indian rattan, and there is also a lead mine here. At last, by the decree of Allah, we arrived safely at the town of Bassorah, where I stayed a few days before going on to Baghdad city. Finding my quarter, I entered my house with great pleasure. There I gathered with my family and friends, who rejoiced at my safe return and gave me their blessings. I stored all the goods I had brought with me in my storehouses and gave alms and gifts to the poor and needy, and clothed the widow and the orphan. Then I gave myself over to pleasure and enjoyment, returning to my old happy way of life. "These, then, are the most marvellous adventures of my fourth voyage. But tomorrow, if you will kindly come to me, I will tell you what befell me in my fifth voyage, which is yet rarer and more marvellous than those which have gone before. And you, O my brother Sindbad the Landsman, will sup with me as is your custom." (Thus says he who tells the tale.) When Sindbad the Seaman had finished his story, he called for supper. They spread the table, and the guests ate the evening meal.

After that he gave the Porter a hundred dinars as was his custom, and he and the rest of the company went their ways, glad at heart and marvelling at the tales they had heard, for each story was more extraordinary than the one before it. The Porter Sindbad passed the night in his own house, full of joy and wonderment, and as soon as morning came with its light, he prayed the dawn prayer and went to the house of Sindbad the Seaman. Sindbad welcomed him and had him sit with him until the rest of the company arrived. Then they ate and drank and made merry and spoke among themselves. Presently, their host began the narrative of the fifth voyage.

When it was the Five Hundred and Fifty sixth night

She said, the host began in these words the narrative of