all his court would honour the funeral with their presence, and the most considerable people of the city would do the like.  When all was ready for the ceremony, the corpse was put into a coffin, with all the jewels and magnificent apparel.  The cavalcade was begun; and, as second actor in this doleful tragedy, I went next the corpse, with my eyes full of tears, bewailing my deplorable fate.  Before I came to the mountain, I made an essay on the minds of the spectators; I addressed myself to the king in the first place, and then to all those who were round me, and, bowing before them to the earth to kiss 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[Footnote:  He was a Mahometan, and this sect allows polygamy.].  It was to no purpose for me to speak thus, for no soul was moved at it; on the contrary, they made haste to let down my wife’s corpse into the pit, and put me down the next moment in an open coffin, with a vessel full of water, and seven loaves.  In short, the fatal ceremony being performed, they covered up the mouth of the pit, notwithstanding the excess of my grief, and my lamentable cries.  As I came near the bottom, I discovered, by help of the little light that came from above, the nature of this subterraneous place; it was a vast long cave, and might be about fifty fathoms deep.  I immediately felt an insufferable stench, proceeding from the multitude of dead corpses which I saw on the right and left; nay, I fancied that I heard some of them sigh out their last.  However, when I got down, I immediately left my coffin, and getting at a distance from the corpse, held my nose, and lay down upon the ground, where I staid a long time, bathed in tears.  Then reflecting upon my sad lot, It is true, said I, that God disposes all things according to the decrees of his providence; but, poor Sindbad, art not thou thyself the cause of being brought to die so strange a death?  Would to God thou hadst perished in some of those tempests which thou hast escaped; then thy death would not have been so lingering and terrible in all its circumstances.  But thou hast drawn all this upon thyself by thy cursed avarice.  Ah, unfortunate wretch! shouldst thou not rather have staid at home, and quietly enjoyed the fruits of thy labour?

Such were the vain complaints with which I made the cave to echo, beating my head and stomach out of rage and despair, and abandoning myself to the most afflicting thoughts.  Nevertheless, I must tell you, that instead of calling death to my assistance in that miserable condition, I felt still an inclination to live, and to do all I could to prolong my days.  I went groping about, with my nose stopped, for the bread and water that was in my coffin, and took some of it.  Though the darkness of the cave was so great that I could not distinguish day and night, yet