fearing wolves or hyaenas. So I sprang up and seizing the leg-
bone aforesaid, made for the noise. As soon as the thing was ware
of me, it fled from me into the inward of the cavern, and lo! it
was a wild beast. However, I followed it to the further end, till
I saw afar off a point of light not bigger than a star, now
appearing and then disappearing. So I made for it, and as I drew
near, it grew larger and brighter, till I was certified that it
was a crevice in the rock, leading to the open country; and I
said to myself, "There must be some reason for this opening:
either it is the mouth of a second pit, such as that by which
they let me down, or else it is a natural fissure in the
stonery." So I bethought me awhile and nearing the light, found
that it came from a breach in the back side of the mountain,
which the wild beasts had enlarged by burrowing, that they might
enter and devour the dead and freely go to and fro. When I saw
this, my spirits revived and hope came back to me and I made sure
of life, after having died a death. So I went on, as in a dream,
and making shift to scramble through the breach found myself on
the slope of a high mountain, overlooking the salt sea and
cutting off all access thereto from the island, so that none
could come at that part of the beach from the city.[FN#52] I
praised my Lord and thanked Him, rejoicing greatly and heartening
myself with the prospect of deliverance; then I returned through
the crack to the cavern and brought out all the food and water I
had saved up and donned some of the dead folk's clothes over my
own; after which I gathered together all the collars and
necklaces of pearls and jewels and trinkets of gold and silver
set with precious stones and other ornaments and valuables I
could find upon the corpses; and, making them into bundles with
the grave clothes and raiment of the dead, carried them out to