All that I can do for thee, said he, is, that I will not take away thy life; do not flatter thyself that I will send thee safe and sound back.  I must let you feel what I am able to do by my enchantments.  With that he laid violent hands on me, and carried me across the vault of the subterraneous palace, which opened to give him passage; he flew up with me so high, that the earth seemed to be only a little white cloud; from thence he came down again like lightning, and alighted upon the ridge of a mountain.

There he took up a handful of earth, and pronounced, or rather muttered, some words which I did not understand, and threw it upon me.  Leave the shape of a man, says he to me, and take on that of an ape.  He vanished immediately, and left me alone, transformed into an ape, overwhelmed with sorrow in a strange country, not knowing if I was near unto or far from my father’s dominions.

I went down from the height of the mountain, and came into a plain country, which took me a month’s time to travel through, and then I came to a coast of the sea.  It happened then to be a great calm, and I espied a vessel about half a league from the shore; I would not lose this good opportunity, but broke off a large branch from a tree, which I carried with me to the sea-side, and set myself astride upon it, with a stick in each hand to serve me for oars.

I launched out in this posture, and advanced near the ship.  When I was near enough to be known, the seamen and passengers that were upon the deck thought it an extraordinary spectacle, and all of them looked upon me with great astonishment.  In the mean time, I got aboard, and laying hold of a rope, I jumped on the deck, and, having lost my speech, I found myself in very great perplexity; and indeed the risk I ran then was nothing less than when I was at the mercy of the genie.

The merchants, being both superstitious and scrupulous, believed I should occasion some mischief to their voyage, if they received me:  therefore, says one, I will knock him down with an handspike; says another, I will shoot an arrow through his guts; says a third, Let us throw him into the sea.  Some of them would not have failed to have executed their design, if I had not got to the side where the captain was; when I threw myself at his feet, and took him by the coat in a begging posture.  This action, together with the tears which he saw gush from my eyes, moved his compassion; so that he took me into his protection, threatened to be avenged on him that should do me the least hurt; and he himself made very much of me, And on my part, though I had no power to speak, I did, by my gestures, show all possible signs of gratitude.

The wind that succeeded the calm was gentle and favourable, and did not alter for five days, but brought us safe to the port of a fine town, well peopled, and of great trade, where we came to an anchor.  It was so much the more considerable, that it was the capital city of a powerful state.