st to
which I had been carried to take as much as he would of my treasure, but
he contented himself with one stone, and that by no means the largest,
assuring me that with such a gem his fortune was made, and he need toil
no more. I stayed with the merchants several days, and then as they were
journeying homewards I gladly accompanied them. Our way lay across high
mountains infested with frightful serpents, but we had the good luck to
escape them and came at last to the seashore. Thence we sailed to the
isle of Roha, where the camphor-trees grow to such a size that a hundred
men could shelter under one of them with ease. The sap flows from an
incision made high up in the tree into a vessel hung there to receive
it, and soon hardens into the substance called camphor, but the tree
itself withers up and dies when it has been so treated.

In this same island we saw the rhinoceros, an animal which is smaller
than the elephant and larger than the buffalo. It has one horn about a
cubit long which is solid, but has a furrow from the base to the tip.
Upon it is traced in white lines the figure of a man. The rhinoceros
fights with the elephant, and transfixing him with his horn carries him
off upon his head, but becoming blinded with the blood of his enemy, he
falls helpless to the ground, and then comes the roc, and clutches them
both up in his talons and takes them to feed his young. This doubtless
astonishes you, but if you do not believe my tale go to Roha and see for
yourself. For fear of wearying you I pass over in silence many other
wonderful things which we saw in this island. Before we left I exchanged
one of my diamonds for much goodly merchandise by which I profited
greatly on our homeward way. At last we reached Balsora, whence I
hastened to Bagdad, where my first action was to bestow large sums of
money upon the poor, after which I settled down to enjoy tranquilly the
riches I had gained with so much toil and pain.

Having thus related the adventures of his second voyage, Sindbad again
bestowed a hundred sequins upon Hindbad, inviting him to come again on
the following day and hear how he fared upon his third voyage. The other
guests also departed to their homes, but all returned at the same hour
next day, including the porter, whose former life of hard work and
poverty had already begun to seem to him like a bad dream. Again after
the feast was over did Sindbad claim the attention of his guests and
began the accoun