Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 3.djvu/229

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waves and sank down again into the trough of the sea.

Now there was before us a high mountain,[1] rising [abruptly] from the sea, and the ship fell off into an eddy,[2] which bore it on till presently it struck upon the skirt[3] of the mountain and broke in sunder; whereupon the captain came down [from the mast], weeping, and said, ‘God’s will be done! Take leave of one another and look yourselves out graves from to-day, for we have fallen into a predicament[4] from which there is no escape, and never yet hath any been cast away here and come off alive.’ So all the folk fell a-weeping and gave themselves up for lost, despairing of deliverance; friend took leave of friend and sore was the mourning and lamentation; for that hope was cut off and they were left without guide or pilot.[5] Then all who were in the ship landed on the skirt of the mountain and found themselves on a long island, whose shores were strewn with [wrecks], beyond count or reckoning, [of] ships that had been cast away [there] and whose crews had perished; and there also were

  1. i.e. a mountainous island.
  2. Kherabeh, lit. a hole. Syn. ruin or destruction.
  3. i.e. an outlying spur or reef.
  4. Syn. perilous place.
  5. Lit. their guide was disappointed.