after other, till there was but a small company of us left. Each
that died we washed and shrouded in some of the clothes and linen
cast ashore by the tides; and after a little, the rest of my
fellows perished, one by one, till I had buried the last of the
party and abode alone on the island, with but a little provision
left, I who was wont to have so much. And I wept over myself,
saying, "Would Heaven I had died before my companions and they
had washed and buried me! It had been better than I should perish
and none wash me and shroud me and bury me. But there is Majesty
and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"--
And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.

When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-first Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sindbad the
Seaman continued in these words:--Now after I had buried the last
of my party and abode alone on the island, I arose and dug me a
deep grave on the sea-shore, saying to myself, "Whenas I grow
weak and know that death cometh to me, I will cast myself into
the grave and die there, so the wind may drift the sand over me
and cover me and I be buried therein."[FN#76] Then I fell to
reproaching myself for my little wit in leaving my native land
and betaking me again to travel, after all I had suffered during
my first five voyages, and when I had not made a single one
without suffering more horrible perils and more terrible
hardships than in its forerunner and having no hope of escape
from my present stress; and I repented me of my folly and
bemoaned myself, especially as I had no need of money, seeing
that I had enough and more than enough and could not spend what I