an underground chamber, where he regaled the waif with plenteous food.
To him did this man explain how he was a groom of King Mirjan, and that
he brought the king's mares to pasture on the island, hiding underground
while the stallions of the sea came up out of the waves unto the mares.
Presently Sindbad saw this strange sight, and witnessed how the groom
drove the stallions back to the waves when they would have dragged the
mares with them. After that he was carried before King Mirjan, who
entreated him kindly, and when he had amassed wealth, returned by ship
to Bussorah, and so to Baghdad.

But becoming possessed with the thought of travelling about the ways of
men, he set out on a second voyage. And it came to pass that he landed
with others on a lovely island, and lay down to sleep, after he had
eaten many delicious fruits. Awaking, he found the ship gone. Then,
praying to Almighty Allah, like a man distracted, he roamed about the
island, presently climbing a tree to see what he could see. And he saw a
great dome afar, and journeyed to it.

There was no entrance to this white dome, and as he went round about it,
the sun became suddenly darkened, so that he looked towards it in fear,
and lo! a bird in the heavens whose wings blackened all light. Then did
Sindbad know that the dome was an egg, and that the bird was the bird
roc, which feeds its young upon elephants. Sore afraid, he hid himself,
and the bird settled upon the egg, and brooded upon it. Then Sindbad
unwound his turban, and, tying one end to the leg of the great bird and
the other about his own middle, waited for the dawn.

When the dawn was come, the bird flew into the heavens, unaware of the
weight at its foot, and Sindbad was borne across great seas and far
countries. When at last the bird settled on land, Sindbad unfastened his