and shrouds, and rowed back with me to the ship, where the
captain said to me, "How camest thou, O man, to yonder place on
yonder mountain behind which lieth a great city? All my life I
have sailed these seas and passed to and fro hard by these
heights; yet never saw I here any living thing save wild beasts
and birds." I repeated to him the story I had told the
sailors,[FN#54] but acquainted him with nothing of that which had
befallen me in the city and the cavern, lest there should be any
of the islandry in the ship. Then I took out some of the best
pearls I had with me and offered them to the captain, saying, "O
my lord, thou hast been the means of saving me off this mountain.
I have no ready money; but take this from me in requital of thy
kindness and good offices." But he refused to accept it of me,
saying, "When we find a shipwrecked man on the sea-shore or on an
island, we take him up and give him meat and drink, and if he be
naked we clothe him; nor take we aught from him; nay, when we
reach a port of safety, we set him ashore with a present of our
own money and entreat him kindly and charitably, for the love of
Allah the Most High." So I prayed that his life be long in the
land and rejoiced in my escape, trusting to be delivered from my
stress and to forget my past mishaps; for every time I remembered
being let down into the cave with my dead wife I shuddered in
horror. Then we pursued our voyage and sailed from island to
island and sea to sea, till we arrived at the Island of the Bell,
which containeth a city two days' journey in extent, whence after
a six days' run we reached the Island Kala, hard by the land of
Hind.[FN#55] This place is governed by a potent and puissant King
and it produceth excellent camphor and an abundance of the Indian
rattan: here also is a lead mine. At last by the decree of Allah,
we arrived in safety at Bassorah-town where I tarried a few days,