Again it came to him to travel, and on this his third voyage the ship was driven to the mountain of Zughb, inhabited by hairy apes.  These apes seized all the goods and gear, breaking the ship, but spared the men.  Then they perceived a great house and entered it, but nobody was there.  At nightfall, however, a frightful giant entered, and began to feel the men one by one, till he found the fattest, and him the giant roasted over a fire and ate like a chicken.  This happened many days, till Sindbad encouraged his friends, and they heated two iron spits in the fire, and while the giant slept put out his eyes.  While they ran to the shore, where they had built a raft, the giant, bellowing with rage, returned with two ghuls, and pelted the raft with rocks, killing some, but the rest escaped.  However, three only were alive when they reached land.

The shore on which these three landed was occupied by an immense serpent, like a dragon, who instantly ate one of the three, while Sindbad and the other climbed up a tree.  Next day the serpent glided up the tree, and ate the second.  Then Sindbad descended, and with planks bound himself all round so that he was a man surrounded by a fence.  Thus did he abide safe from the serpent till a ship saved him.

Now on his fourth voyage Sindbad’s ship was wrecked, and he fell among hairy men, cannibals, who fattened all that they caught like cattle, and consumed them.  He being thin and wasted by all his misfortunes, escaped death, and saw all his comrades fattened and roasted, till they went mad, with cries of anguish.  It chanced that the shepherd, who tended these men in the folds, took pity on Sindbad and showed him the road out of danger, which taking, he arrived, after divers adventures and difficulties, at the country of a great king.  In this country all were horsemen, but the saddle was unknown, so Sindbad made first the king, and afterwards the vizir, both saddle and stirrups, which so delighted them that he was advanced to great fortune and honour.

Then was he married to a maiden most beautiful and chaste, so lovely to behold that she ravished the senses, and he lived like one in a dream.  But it came to pass that she died, and when they buried her they took Sindbad and shut him in the Place of the Dead with her, giving him a little food and water till he should die.  Such was the custom, that husband and wife should accompany the dead wife or husband in the Place of the Dead—­a mighty cave strewn with dead bodies, dark as night, and littered with jewels.

While Sindbad bewailed his lot in this place the doors opened, a dead body of a man was brought in, and with it his live wife, to whom food was given.  Then Sindbad killed this fair lady with the bone of a leg, took her food and jewels, and thus did he serve all the live people thrust into the cavern.  One day he heard a strange sound far up the cavern, and perceived in the distance a wild beast.  Then he knew that there must be some entrance at that far end, and journeying thither, found a hole in the mountain which led to the sea.  On the shore Sindbad piled all his jewels, returning every day to the cavern to gather more, till a ship came and bore him away.