apparel and jewels. Then the husband embracing his kindred and friends,
suffered himself, without resistance, to be put into another open coffin
with a pot of water, and seven small loaves, and was let down in the
same manner. The ceremony being over, the aperture was again covered
with the stone, and the company returned.

"It is needless for me to tell you that I was a melancholy spectator of
this funeral, while the rest were scarcely moved, the custom was to them
so familiar. I could not forbear communicating to the king my sentiment
respecting the practice: 'Sir,' I said, 'I cannot but feel astonished at
the strange usage observed in this country, of burying the living with
the dead. I have been a great traveller, and seen many countries, but
never heard of so cruel a law.' 'What do you mean, Sinbad?' replied the
king: 'it is a common law. I shall be interred with the queen, my wife,
if she die first.' 'But, sir,' said I, 'may I presume to ask your
Majesty, if strangers be obliged to observe this law?' 'Without doubt,'
returned the king; 'they are not exempted, if they be married in this
island.'

"I returned home much depressed by this answer; for the fear of my
wife's dying first and that I should be interred alive with her,
occasioned me very uneasy reflections. But there was no remedy; I must
have patience, and submit to the will of God. I trembled, however, at
every little indisposition of my wife, and, alas! in a little time my
fears were realised, for she fell sick and died.

"The king and all his court expressed their wish to honour the funeral
with their presence, and the most considerable people of the city did
the same. When all was ready for the ceremony, the corpse was put into a
coffin with all her jewels and her most magnificent apparel. The
procession began, and as second actor in this doleful tragedy, I went
next the corpse, with my eyes full of tears, bewailing my deplorable
fate. Before we reached the mountain, I made an attempt to affect the
minds of the spectators: I addressed myself to the king first, and then
to all those that were round me; bowing before them to the earth, and
kissing the border of their garments, I prayed them to have compassion
upon me. 'Consider,' said I, 'that I am a stranger, and ought not to be
subject to this rigorous law, and that I have another wife and children
in my own country.' Although I spoke in the most pathetic manner, no one
was moved by my address; on the