daring adventurer sent by his master to collect gold from
the mines of Nubia; by sailing further and further up the river, he
reached the mysterious sea which forms the southern boundary of the
world. "I set sail in a vessel one hundred and fifty cubits long, forty
wide, with one hundred and fifty of the best sailors in the land
of Egypt, who had seen heaven and earth, and whose hearts were more
resolute than those of lions. They had foretold that the wind would not
be contrary, or that there would be even none at all; but a squall came
upon us unexpectedly while we were in the open, and as we approached
the land, the wind freshened and raised the waves to the height of eight
cubits. As for me, I clung to a beam, but those who were on the vessel
perished without one escaping. A wave of the sea cast me on to an
island, after having spent three days alone with no other companion than
my own heart. I slept there in the shade of a thicket; then I set my
legs in motion in quest of something for my mouth." The island produced
a quantity of delicious fruit: he satisfied his hunger with it, lighted
a fire to offer a sacrifice to the gods, and immediately, by the magical
power of the sacred rites, the inhabitants, who up to this time had
been invisible, were revealed to his eyes. "I heard a sound like that of
thunder, which I at first took to be the noise of the flood-tide in the
open sea; but the trees quivered, the earth trembled. I uncovered my
face, and I perceived that it was a serpent which was approaching. He
was thirty cubits in length, and his wattles exceeded two cubits; his
body was incrusted with gold, and his colour appeared like that of
real lapis. He raised himself before me and opened his mouth; while I
prostrated myself before him, he said to me: 'Who hath brought thee, who
hath brought thee, little one, who hath brought thee? If thou dost not
tell me immediately who brought thee to this island, I will cause thee
to know thy littleness: either thou shalt faint like a woman, or thou
shalt tell me something which I have not yet heard, and which I knew
not before thee.' Then he took me into his mouth and carried me to
his dwelling-place, and put me down without hurting me; I was safe and
sound, and nothing had been taken from me." Our hero tells the serpent
the story of his shipwreck, which moves him to pity and induces him to
reciprocate his confidence. "Fear nothing, fear nothing, little one, let
not thy countenan