ing me up and up till I could
no longer see the earth, and then suddenly it descended so swiftly that
I almost lost consciousness. When I became aware that the roc had
settled and that I was once again upon solid ground, I hastily unbound
my turban from its foot and freed myself, and that not a moment too
soon; for the bird, pouncing upon a huge snake, killed it with a few
blows from its powerful beak, and seizing it rose up into the air once
more and soon disappeared from my view. When I had looked about me I
began to doubt if I had gained anything by quitting the desolate island.

The valley in which I found myself was deep and narrow, and surrounded
by mountains which towered into the clouds, and were so steep and rocky
that there was no way of climbing up their sides. As I wandered about,
seeking anxiously for some means of escaping from this trap, I observed
that the ground was strewed with diamonds, some of them of an
astonishing size. This sight gave me great pleasure, but my delight was
speedily dampened when I saw also numbers of horrible snakes so long and
so large that the smallest of them could have swallowed an elephant with
ease. Fortunately for me they seemed to hide in caverns of the rocks by
day, and only came out by night, probably because of their enemy the
roc.

All day long I wandered up and down the valley, and when it grew dusk I
crept into a little cave, and having blocked up the entrance to it with
a stone, I ate part of my little store of food and lay down to sleep,
but all through the night the serpents crawled to and fro, hissing
horribly, so that I could scarcely close my eyes for terror. I was
thankful when the morning light appeared, and when I judged by the
silence that the serpents had retreated to their dens I came tremblingly
out of my cave and wandered up and down the valley once more, kicking
the diamonds contemptuously out of my path, for I felt that they were
indeed vain things to a man in my situation. At last, overcome with
weariness, I sat down upon a rock, but I had hardly closed my eyes when
I was startled by something which fell to the ground with a thud close
beside me.

It was a huge piece of fresh meat, and as I stared at it several more
pieces rolled over the cliffs in different places. I had always thought
that the stories the sailors told of the famous valley of diamonds, and
of the cunning way which some merchants had devised for getting at the
precious stones, were