The Elson Readers Part 24

THE LAST VOYAGE OF SINDBAD THE SAILOR

On the seventh day, after dinner, Sindbad told the story of his last voyage:

On my return home from my sixth voyage, I had entirely given up all thoughts of again going to sea; for, not only did my age now require rest, but I was resolved to run no more such risks as I had encountered, so that I thought of nothing but to pa.s.s the rest of my days in peace.

One day, however, an officer of the Caliph inquired for me. "The Caliph," said he, "has sent me to tell you that he must speak with you." I followed the officer to the palace, where, being presented to the Caliph, I saluted him, throwing myself at his feet.

"Sindbad," said he to me, "I stand in need of your service; you must carry my answer and present to the King of the Indies."

This command of the Caliph was to me like a clap of thunder.

"Commander of the Faithful," I replied, "I am ready to do whatever your Majesty shall think fit to command; but I beg you most humbly to consider what I have undergone. I have also made a vow never to leave Baghdad."

The Caliph insisted, and I finally told him that I was willing to obey. He was pleased, and gave me one thousand sequins for the expenses of my journey.

I prepared for my departure in a few days. As soon as the Caliph's letter and present were delivered to me, I went to Bussorah, where I embarked, and had a safe voyage. Having arrived at the capital of the Indies, I was shown to the palace with much pomp, when I prostrated myself on the ground before the King.

"Sindbad," said the King, "you are welcome; I have many times thought of you; I bless the day on which I see you once more." I thanked him for his kindness, and delivered the gifts from my master.

The Caliph's present was a complete suit of cloth of gold, fifty robes of rich stuff, a hundred of white cloth, the finest of Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria; a vessel of agate, more broad than deep, an inch thick, and half a foot long, the bottom of which was carved to represent a man with one knee on the ground, who held a bow and arrow, ready to discharge at a lion. He sent him also a rich tablet, which, according to tradition, had belonged to the great Solomon.

The King of the Indies was highly gratified at the Caliph's mark of friends.h.i.+p. A little time after this I asked leave to depart, and with much difficulty obtained it. The King, when he dismissed me, made me a very splendid present. I embarked for Baghdad, but had not the good fortune to arrive there so speedily as I had hoped. Three or four days after my departure we were attacked by pirates, who seized upon our s.h.i.+p, because it was not a vessel of war. Some of the crew fought back, which cost them their lives. But myself and the rest, who were not so rash, the pirates saved, and carried into a distant island, where they sold us.

I fell into the hands of a rich merchant, who, as soon as he bought me, took me to his house, treated me well, and clad me handsomely as a slave. Some days after, he asked me if I understood any trade. I answered that I was no mechanic, but a merchant, and that the pirates who sold me had robbed me of all I had.

"Tell me," he said, "can you shoot with a bow?" I answered that the bow was one of my exercises in my youth.

Then my master told me to climb into a tree and shoot at the elephants as they pa.s.sed and let him know as soon as I killed one, in order that he might get the tusks. I hid as he told me, and as I was successful the first day, he sent me day after day, for two months.

One morning the elephants surrounded my tree, and the largest pulled up the tree with his trunk and threw it on the ground. Then, picking me up, he laid me on his back and carried me to a hill almost covered with the bones and tusks of elephants. I knew that this must be the burial place of the elephants and they had brought me here to show me that I could get vast quant.i.ties of ivory without killing any more elephants.

I went back to the city and told my master all that had happened.

He was overjoyed at my escape from death and the riches which I had obtained for him. As a reward for my services he set me free and promised to send me home as soon as the trade winds brought the s.h.i.+ps for ivory.

A s.h.i.+p arrived at last, and my master loaded one half of it with ivory for me. When we reached a port on the mainland, I landed my ivory and set out for home with a caravan of merchants. I was a long time on the journey, but was happy in thinking that I had nothing to fear from the sea or from pirates. At last I arrived at Baghdad, and the Caliph loaded me with honors and rich presents.

Sindbad here finished the story of his seventh and last voyage. Then addressing himself to Hindbad, he said, "Well, friend, did you ever hear of any person who had suffered as much as I have?"

Hindbad kissed Sindbad's hand and said, "Sir, my afflictions are not to be compared with yours. You not only deserve a quiet life, but are worthy of all the riches you possess. May you live happily for a long time."

Sindbad ordered him to be paid another hundred sequins and told him to give up carrying burdens and to eat henceforth at his table, for he wished him to remember that he would always have a friend in Sindbad the Sailor.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Discussion. 1. Why did Sindbad tell the story of his voyages? 2.

What was the effect of these stories upon Hindbad? 3. If Hindbad had desired to become as rich as Sindbad, what should he have done, and what price would he have paid? 4. Why did Sindbad give money to his guest at the end of each story? 5. Did he do other good deeds with his money? 6. In each of these three long stories, of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor, what do you learn about the duty of men who have by chance or by their own hard work succeeded in acquiring riches? 7. How many voyages did Sindbad make to satisfy his love of adventure? 8. Which voyage was undertaken to please someone else? 9.

Mention some things that Sindbad sold at great profit. 10. Where are these articles most used or valued? 11. Why was it so difficult to travel by water at the time Sindbad lived? 12. What do we learn about Sindbad's character from the story of his voyages? 13. What do we learn about Sindbad's character from his treatment of Hindbad? 14.

What parts of the story show that people in Sindbad's time knew very little about geography? 15. Which of Sindbad's seven voyages is the most interesting to you? 16. What have you learned of Eastern customs from this story? 17. Earlier you were told why we read adventure stories of this kind; show why you think the Arabian Nights stories have the two values mentioned. 18. Cla.s.s readings: Select pa.s.sages to be read aloud. 19. Outline for testing silent reading. Tell in your own words the story of each of the voyages of Sindbad, using the topic headings given in the book. If possible, try to tell these stories to some child who cannot read them. 20. The Arabian Nights by Wiggin and Smith was ill.u.s.trated by the famous American artist, Maxfield Parrish; you will enjoy looking at these pictures. 21. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: mansion; grave; humor; ointment; sandalwood; repentance; turban; s.h.i.+pping; traffic; azure. 22. p.r.o.nounce: Caliph; Harun-al-Ras.h.i.+d; savory; repast; becalmed; Maharaja; rarities; aloes; sequin; roc; desert; Arabic; sovereign; tradition.

Phrases for Study

attend his pleasure, Commander of the Faithful, bountiful traveler, trade winds.

THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD

(Ed.--This story, in it's original, uncondensed version, in addition to many others, can be found at the web site http://www.gutenberg.org, searching in the index for the t.i.tle Robin Hood.)

THE HOME OF ROBIN IN SHERWOOD FOREST

Many hundreds of years ago, when the Plantagenets were kings, England was so covered with woods that a squirrel was said to be able to hop from tree to tree from the Severn to the Humber.

It must have been very different-looking from the country we travel through now; but still there were roads that ran from north to south and from east to west, for the use of those who wished to leave their homes, and at certain times of the year these roads were thronged with people. Pilgrims going to some holy shrine pa.s.sed along, merchants taking their wares to Court, Abbots and Bishops ambling by on palfreys to bear their part in the King's Council, and, more frequently still, a solitary Knight, seeking adventures.

Besides the broad roads there were small tracks and little green paths, and these led to clumps of low huts, where dwelt the peasants, charcoal-burners, and plowmen, while here and there some larger clearing than usual told that the house of a yeoman was near.

Now and then as you pa.s.sed through the forest you might ride by a splendid abbey, and catch a glimpse of monks in long black or white gowns, fis.h.i.+ng in the streams and rivers that abound in this part of England, or casting nets in the fish ponds which were in the midst of the abbey gardens. Or you might chance to see a castle with round turrets and high battlements, circled by strong walls, and protected by a moat full of water.

This was the sort of England into which the famous Robin Hood was born. We know very little about him, who he was, or where he lived, except that for some reason he had offended the King, who had declared him an outlaw, so that any man might kill him and never pay a penalty for it.

But, outlaw or not, the poor people loved him and looked on him as their friend, and many a stout fellow came to join him, and led a merry life in the greenwood, with moss and fern for bed, and for meat the King's deer, which it was death to slay.

Peasants of all sorts, tillers of the land, yeomen, and, as some say, Knights, went on their ways freely, for of them Robin took no toll; but rich men with moneybags well filled trembled as they drew near to Sherwood Forest--who was to know whether behind every tree there did not lurk Robin Hood or some of his men?

THE COMING OF LITTLE JOHN

One day Robin was walking alone in the wood, and reached a river which was spanned by a very narrow bridge, over which one man only could pa.s.s. In the middle stood a stranger, and Robin bade him go back and let him go over. "I am no man of yours," was all the answer Robin got, and in anger he drew his bow and fitted an arrow to it.

"Would you shoot a man who has no arms but a staff?" asked the stranger in scorn; and with shame Robin laid down his bow, and unbuckled an oaken stick at his side. "We will fight till one of us falls into the water," he said; and fight they did, till the stranger planted a blow so well that Robin rolled over into the river.

"You are a brave soul," said he, when he had waded to land; and he blew a blast with his horn which brought fifty good fellows, clad in green, to the little bridge. "Have you fallen into the river, that your clothes are wet?" asked one; and Robin made answer, "No, but this stranger, fighting on the bridge, got the better of me and tumbled me into the stream."

At this the foresters seized the stranger and would have ducked him, had not their leader bade them stop and begged the stranger to stay with them and make one of themselves. "Here is my hand," replied the stranger, "and my heart with it. My name, if you would know it, is John Little."

"That must be altered," cried Will Scarlett; "we will call a feast, and henceforth, because he is full seven feet tall and round the waist at least an ell, he shall be called Little John."

And thus it was done; but at the feast Little John, who always liked to know exactly what work he had to do, put some questions to Robin Hood. "Before I join hands with you, tell me first what sort of life this is you lead. How am I to know whose goods I shall take, and whose I shall leave? Whom shall I beat, and whom shall I refrain from beating?"

And Robin answered: "Look that you harm not any tiller of the ground, nor any yeoman of the greenwood--no, nor any knight or squire, unless you have heard him ill spoken of. But if rich men with moneybags come your way, see that you spoil THEM, and mark that you always hold in your mind the High Sheriff of Nottingham."

This being settled, Robin Hood declared Little John to be second in command to himself among the brotherhood of the forest, and the new outlaw never forgot to hold in his mind the High Sheriff of Nottingham, who was the bitterest enemy the foresters had.

Robin Hood, however, had no liking for a company of idle men about him, so he at once sent off Little John and Will Scarlett to the great road known as Wafting Street with orders to hide among the trees and wait till some adventure might come to them. If they took captive Earl or Baron, Abbot or Knight, he was to be brought unharmed back to Robin Hood.