irm. He was sitting on the bank of a stream,
and at first I took him to be one who had been shipwrecked like myself.
I went towards him and saluted him, but he only slightly bowed his
head. I asked him why he sat so still; but instead of answering me, he
made a sign for me to take him upon my back and carry him over the
brook, signifying that it was to gather fruit.

I believed him really to stand in need of my assistance, took him upon
my back, and having carried him over, bade him get down, and for that
end stooped, that he might get off with ease; but instead of doing so
(which I laugh at every time I think of it), the old man who appeared to
me quite decrepit, threw his legs nimbly about my neck. He sat astride
upon my shoulders, and held my throat so tight that I thought he would
have strangled me, the apprehension of which made me swoon and fall
down.

Notwithstanding my fainting, the ill-natured old fellow kept fast about
my neck. When I had recovered my breath, he thrust one of his feet
against my stomach, and struck me so rudely on the side with the other,
that he forced me to rise up against my will. Having arisen, he made me
carry him under the trees, and forced me now and then to stop, to gather
and eat fruit such as we found. He never left me all day, and when I lay
down to rest at night, he laid himself down with me, holding always
fast about my neck. Every morning he pushed me to make me awake, and
afterwards obliged me to get up and walk, and pressed me with his feet.
You may judge then, what trouble I was in to be loaded with such a
burden of which I could not get rid.

One day I found in my way several dry calabashes that had fallen from a
tree. I took a large one, and after cleaning it, pressed into it some
juice of grapes, which abounded in the island. Having filled the
calabash, I put it by in a convenient place; and going thither again
some days after, I tasted it and found the wine so good that it soon
made me forget my sorrow, gave me new vigour, and so exhilarated my
spirits, that I began to sing and dance as I walked along.

The old man, perceiving the effect which this liquor had upon me, and
that I carried him with more ease than before, made me a sign to give
him some of it. I handed him the calabash, and the liquor pleasing his
palate, he drank it all off. There being a considerable quantity of it,
and the fumes getting into his head, he began to sing and dance upon my
shoulders, and to