o remain with them, if I were so disposed, because
their number was complete, and no addition could be made to it. I
told them, that it would be a great satisfaction to me never to
part from such agreeable gentlemen, but if there were a necessity
for it, I was ready to submit; and let it cost me what it would,
I begged them to grant my request.

The ten gentlemen perceiving that I was so fixed in my
resolution, took a sheep, killed it, and after they had taken off
the skin, presented me with a knife, telling me it would be
useful to me on an occasion which they would soon explain. "We
must sew you in this skin," said they, "and then leave you; upon
which a bird of a monstrous size, called a roc, will appear in
the air, and taking you for a sheep, will pounce upon you, and
soar with you to the sky: but let not that alarm you; he will
descend with you again, and lay you on the top of a mountain.
When you find yourself on the ground, cut the skin with your
knife, and throw it off. As soon as the roc sees you, he will fly
away for fear, and leave you at liberty. Do not stay, but walk on
till you come to a spacious castle, covered with plates of gold,
large emeralds, and other precious stones: go up to the gate,
which always stands open, and walk in. We have each of us been in
that castle; but will tell you nothing of what we saw, or what
befell us there; you will learn by your own experience. All that
we can inform you is, that it has cost each of us our right eye,
and the penance which you have been witness to, is what we are
obliged to observe in consequence of having been there. The
history of each of us is so full of extraordinary adventures,
that a large volume would not contain them. But we cannot explain
ourselves farther."

When the gentleman had thus spoken, I wrapt myself in the sheep's
skin, held fast the knife which was given me; and after the young
gentlemen had been at the trouble to sew the skin about me, they
retired into the hall, and left me alone. The roc they spoke of
soon arrived; he pounced upon me, took me in his talons like a
sheep, and carried me up the summit of the mountain.

When I found myself on the ground, I cut the skin with the knife,
and throwing it off, the roc at the sight of me flew sway. This
roc is a white bird, of a monstrous size; his strength is such,
that he can lift up elephants from the plains, and carry them to
the tops of mountains, where he feeds upon them.

Being impat