ed us to and fro all that day and
night, but the next morning we found ourselves near an island, upon
which we gladly landed.

There we found delicious fruits, and having satisfied our hunger we
presently lay down to rest upon the shore. Suddenly we were aroused by
a loud rustling noise, and starting up, saw that it was caused by an
immense snake which was gliding towards us over the sand. So swiftly
it came that it had seized one of my comrades before he had time to
fly, and in spite of his cries and struggles speedily crushed the life
out of him in its mighty coils and proceeded to swallow him. By this
time my other companion and I were running for our lives to some place
where we might hope to be safe from this new horror, and seeing a tall
tree we climbed up into it, having first provided ourselves with a
store of fruit off the surrounding bushes. When night came I fell
asleep, but only to be awakened once more by the terrible snake, which
after hissing horribly round the tree at last reared itself up against
it, and finding my sleeping comrade who was perched just below me, it
swallowed him also, and crawled away leaving me half dead with terror.

When the sun rose I crept down from the tree with hardly a hope of
escaping the dreadful fate which had over-taken my comrades; but life
is sweet, and I determined to do all I could to save myself. All day
long I toiled with frantic haste and collected quantities of dry
brushwood, reeds and thorns, which I bound with faggots, and making a
circle of them under my tree I piled them firmly one upon another until
I had a kind of tent in which I crouched like a mouse in a hole when
she sees the cat coming. You may imagine what a fearful night I
passed, for the snake returned eager to devour me, and glided round and
round my frail shelter seeking an entrance. Every moment I feared that
it would succeed in pushing aside some of the faggots, but happily for
me they held together, and when it grew light my enemy retired, baffled
and hungry, to his den. As for me I was more dead than alive! Shaking
with fright and half suffocated by the poisonous breath of the monster,
I came out of my tent and crawled down to the sea, feeling that it
would be better to plunge from the cliffs and end my life at once than
pass such another night of horror. But to my joy and relief I saw a
ship sailing by, and by shouting wildly and waving my turban I managed
to attract the attention of he