alone and took no thought of me and so far forgot me that one day
I gave them the slip and walking out of their place made for the
beach which was distant and there espied a very old man seated on
a high place, girt by the waters. I looked at him and knew him
for the herdsman, who had charge of pasturing my fellows, and
with him were many others in like case. As soon as he saw me, he
knew me to be in possession of my reason and not afflicted like
the rest whom he was pasturing; so signed to me from afar, as who
should say, "Turn back and take the right-hand road, for that
will lead thee into the King's highway." So I turned back, as he
bade me, and followed the right-hand road, now running for fear
and then walking leisurely to rest me, till I was out of the old
man's sight. By this time, the sun had gone down and the darkness
set in; so I sat down to rest and would have slept, but sleep
came not to me that night, for stress of fear and famine and
fatigue. When the night was half spent, I rose and walked on,
till the day broke in all its beauty and the sun rose over the
heads of the lofty hills and athwart the low gravelly plains. Now
I was weary and hungry and thirsty; so I ate my fill of herbs and
grasses that grew in the island and kept life in body and stayed
my stomach, after which I set out again and fared on all that day
and the next night, staying my greed with roots and herbs; nor
did I cease walking for seven days and their nights, till the
morn of the eighth day, when I caught sight of a faint object in
the distance. So I made towards it, though my heart quaked for
all I had suffered first and last, and behold it was a company of
men gathering pepper-grains.[FN#44] As soon as they saw me, they
hastened up to me and surrounding me on all sides, said to me,
"Who art thou and whence come?" I replied, "Know, O folk, that I
am a poor stranger," and acquainted them with my case and all the