nturing alone and is appointed by the Khalif
of Bagdad to convey a letter and present to the Indian prince of
Ceylon--an expedition that lasts him twenty-seven years. The presents
were magnificent. They included a horse worth ten thousand pieces of
gold, with its saddle adorned with gold set with jewels, a book, a
splendid dress, and some beautiful white Egyptian cloth, Greek carpets,
and a crystal cup. Having duly delivered these gifts, he took his leave,
meaning to return to his own country. But the usual adventures befell
him. This time his ship was surrounded by a number of boats on board
of which were men like little devils with swords and daggers. These
attacked the ship, captured Sindbad, and sold him to a rich man as
a slave. He set him to shoot elephants from a tree with bows and arrows.
At last, after many other adventures and having made seven long voyages,
poor Sindbad reached his home.

CHAPTER XVI

TRAVELLERS TO THE EAST

But if the Sindbad saga is based on the stories of Mohammedan travellers
and sum up Arab adventure by sea in the tenth century, we must turn
to another Arab--Massoudy by name--for land travel of the same period.
Massoudy left his home at Bagdad very young and seems to have penetrated
into every Mohammedan country from Spain to farther India. In his
famous _Meadows of Gold_, with its one hundred and thirty-two chapters,
dedicated to "the most illustrious Kings," he describes the various
lands through which he has travelled, giving us at the same time a
good deal of incorrect information about lands he has never seen.

"I have gone so far towards the setting sun
That I have lost all remembrance of the east,
And my course has taken me so far towards the rising sun
That I have forgotten the very name of west."

One cannot but look with admiration on the energetic Arab traveller,
when one remembers the labour of travel even in the tenth century.
There were the long, hot rides through central Asia, under a burning
sun, the ascent of unknown mountains, the crossing of unbridged rivers.
From his lengthy work we will only extract a few details. Though he
had "gone so far toward the setting sun," his knowledge of the West
was very limited, and while Vikings tossed on the Atlantic westwards,
Massoudy tells us that it is "impossible to navigate beyond the Pillars
of Hercules, for no vessel sails on that sea; it is without cultivation
or inhabitant, and its end, like its d