Chapter 71 The Story of Sinbad the Navigator-4

The king ordered his attendants to immediately call judges and witnesses, write a marriage certificate, and make an engagement for me. Since then, I have been very rich, and I lived with my wife in a magnificent palace, surrounded by servants, and lived a life of pleasure. My wife and I love each other and respect each other as guests. Our life is very sweet and happy. One day, there was a sad cry from my neighbor's house. It turned out that my good neighbor's wife had died. He was sad for his wife's death. I went to comfort him, and saw that he was sad, preoccupied, and sad. look, so I comforted him and said:

"Take care of yourself, don't be too sad for your wife's death, may Allah compensate you for your loss and increase your longevity." "Brother!" He said in great sorrow, "You don't know, I only have one day to live, how can I marry again, how can Allah save me?" "Friend, calm down, your body is very healthy, don't say unlucky things." "Brother, I swear on your life, tomorrow you will lose me forever, and you will never see me again for the rest of your life." "why?" "People buried my wife today, and they will bury me tomorrow. You probably don't know, but our customs here are: when the wife dies, the husband must be buried with him; similarly, when the husband dies, the wife must also be buried with him. The truth is, if one of a couple dies, the remaining one will not enjoy the joys of life."

"Swear to Allah, this habit is too ugly for anyone to bear." While I was talking to my neighbors, many people came to express condolences and prepare for the funeral. They took a wooden box, put the dead man in it, took her husband with them, and sent them to the high mountain by the sea. They lifted a big stone and threw the dead man into an unfathomable pit. Then I tied my neighbor with a thick rope, and put him into the hole, and at the same time put down a pot of water and seven breads for him.My neighbor went down to the pothole to untie the rope, and the people above took the rope back, and then covered the hole with big rocks before returning home.This is their funeral.

After attending that funeral, I lamented, "By Allah, this death is so painful and so unfair." So I went to the king's palace and asked: "Your Majesty, why do you take living people to be buried with you in this place?" "Oh, this is our custom. When one of the husband and wife dies, the other is buried with him, so that they can live and die together. The husband and wife will never be separated. This is the habit left by the ancestors." "For a foreigner like me, if my wife dies here, will you also take me to be buried with her?" "Yes, you have to do as the Romans do."

After talking with the king, I was overwhelmed with terror, worried, and somewhat delusional, lest my wife die first and take me to be buried with her.I comforted myself: "Who can predict what is destined? Maybe I will die before my wife." So I worked my ass off and forgot about it. But bad luck finally came. His wife suddenly became ill and was hopelessly ill. After a few days, she let go and passed away.As usual, many local people came to comfort me, and the king also came to condolence me according to their customs. Then they dressed my wife neatly, packed her in a wooden box, and carried her to the mountain by the sea outside the city to uncover the hole. I threw the wooden box into the hole, and then everyone gathered around to say goodbye to me.My end is here, and I can't help shouting: "I'm a foreigner, don't treat me like this."

But they ignored my begging, grabbed me, and tied me up forcibly. They also put a pot of water and seven doughnuts into the hole, and said, "Untie the rope." I didn't want to do it, so they threw the rope, covered the big stone at the entrance of the hole, and walked away. This big pothole is located at the foot of the mountain, and there are countless corpses piled up in it, and the stench is unbearable.At this moment, I began to blame myself again: "Why do I want to get married and settle down here? I swear to Allah, this is the most unjust way to die. It is better to drown in the sea, or die in the mountains a few times before, than to die in the mountains." Much better to be buried alive."

I kept complaining about myself, sleeping on the bones of dead people, waiting to die. I don't know how long it took, I was so hungry and thirsty, I struggled to sit up and groped, took bread and cold water to eat and drink, and tentatively got up and walked around.I found that it was a very large and empty cave, and the rotting corpses inside were piled up into mountains.I found a clean place in a corner of the cave and sat down, thinking that the days to come were numbered, it was extremely sad.I dare not eat or drink anything every few days, for fear that the time of death will come.But no matter how frugal, there is only so much to eat.

I spent a few days in despair in the dark tomb. Just as I was about to die, the hole above my head suddenly made a violent sound, and then a ray of light penetrated into the hole. I was startled, not knowing what happened.Taking a closer look, I saw a group of people standing at the entrance of the cave, and then they put down a male corpse and a crying woman, and put food at the same time.The woman couldn't see me at the time, but I could see her clearly. After the mourners covered the hole and dispersed, I picked up a dead man's leg bone, sneaked up behind the woman, and beat her head with the bone, killing her.She was wearing gold and silver, and I picked up her jewelry and her food, and then went back to where I had been.

In this way, I lingered in the pothole to survive.Whenever someone dies outside, I kill those buried with me, take their food, and keep myself alive.Until one day, a nearby sound woke me up from my dream, and I thought: "What the hell is this sound?" So I stood up vigilantly, took a dead leg bone, and went to check it out. The beast, hearing my footsteps, fled away.I followed and chased for a while, and suddenly a flickering light appeared in front of my eyes.I walked towards the light, and it turned out that this was an exit leading to the outside. I thought to myself: "There may be other exits from this tunnel. This is probably a gap." After thinking about it for a while, I mustered up the courage to go to the light and see clearly that it was a cave dug open by wild animals to eat the dead.

After discovering the cave, my emotions immediately calmed down, and I believed that I was saved.I struggled to climb out of the cave and stood on a high mountain. This mountain was separated by the ocean from the city to the island, and it was an inaccessible place.I went into the cave again, collected the remaining food and the funeral objects of the burials, put on some clean clothes for the dead, and then went out and sat on the seashore, waiting for the passing ships. One day, I was waiting on the beach as usual, and suddenly found a boat passing by on the rough sea.I tied a dead man's white garment to a branch, held it up high, and walked along the shore shaking it, calling for help. only boats.The sailors rowed up to me and asked:

"Who are you? Why are you here? This place has never been inhabited. How did you come here?" "I'm a businessman. Unfortunately, a ship sank in the middle of the boat and was in danger. I relied on a plank to save my life and drifted on the sea. Fortunately, Allah blessed me, and I ended up wandering here." The sailors helped me load those treasures into the boat, and took me to the big ship to meet the captain.The captain asked me: "How did you come here? There is a big city behind this high mountain. I have sailed on this sea all my life and passed by this mountain many times. I have never seen anyone except birds and beasts. How did you come here?" came here?" I told the captain what happened to me, because I was afraid that there would be residents of that city among the passengers, so I didn't talk about my experience in that city.I took out some belongings and gave them to the captain, saying: "You are my savior, this is a gift for you, a little thank you." He refused and said: "I never accept gifts from anyone. We will rescue anyone who is in trouble. When we arrive at Duddle, we will give some gifts to the victim so that he can live Go down. Allah the Great has commanded us to do so, so give thanks and praise Allah." So, I arrived safely in Basra with the boat, stayed there for a few days, and then turned back to Baghdad to meet my family again.When everyone saw that I had returned safely, they all congratulated me with joy. I gave a lot of money to help the poor and showed great kindness.Since then, I have lived a life of unfettered enjoyment.Such was the adventure of my fourth voyage. Sinbad the navigator recounted the experience of the fourth voyage, and then said to Sinbad the porter: "Brother, have dinner with me. Come tomorrow, and I will tell you the story of the fifth voyage, which will be even more thrilling." So he ordered his attendants to bring one hundred gold coins to Sinbad, the porter, and hold a banquet Treat him and his family and friends.After dinner, everyone took their leave, and Sinbad, the porter, returned home in a happy mood and spent the night in comfort. The next day, Sinbad the porter went straight to Sinbad the navigator's house after waking up from his dream, and the host still hosted a banquet to welcome them.When everyone was full and happy, Sinbad the navigator began to talk about his fifth voyage. Fifth voyage My friends, I have returned from my fourth voyage, earning a lot of money and living a life of pleasure.All kinds of thrilling encounters in the past travels are slowly forgotten.As the days went by, I was driven by desire to do business overseas, go sightseeing, and finally decided to embark on my fifth sailing trip. I acquired many costly and portable goods, packed them, and brought them to Basra.From a distance, I saw a well-equipped, newly-built large ship parked on the seashore. I couldn't restrain my inner excitement after seeing it. I bought it with money, hired a captain and a group of water steamers, loaded it with cargo, and set sail. . Everyone on the ship is smiling, which indicates a bright future. We traveled non-stop, passing through countless islands and cities. Every time we go to a city, we have to go sightseeing and do business.One day, our boat passed a large and uninhabited island, and there was only one large building with a white dome on the island.The people on the boat are very curious, so they must stop the boat and go to the island to have a look.I suddenly remembered that this so-called building was actually a huge condor egg, but these people didn't know it, and just wanted to see what happened, so they smashed the egg with stones, and a lot of juice flowed out, and the unformed eagle chick inside , was also pulled out by them, and everyone cut off the eagle meat and ate it.I was in the boat at the time, and when I saw their actions, I was shocked and said: "You don't act like this, the Condor will retaliate and destroy our ship, that would be bad." It was too late to say it, but it was too soon. As soon as my words fell, the sun suddenly disappeared. In an instant, the earth was dark, and the sky was covered with layers of dark clouds.I looked up, and sure enough it was a condor coming, its wings blocked the sun.When the condor flew back and saw that its egg had been broken, it screamed wildly, and the female eagle also rushed over. The two condors hovered in the air, their hissing like thunder.I command the captain and sailors: "Sail the ship quickly. The disaster is imminent, let's run for our lives." So, the merchants rushed to the ship, and the captain and sailors immediately set sail and left the deserted island. Our ship was moving fast, and all of us wanted to get out of that area so that no surprise would happen.But not far away, two eagles were chasing after us, holding a big rock in each claw, hovering over us.First, the eagle aimed at our ship and threw down stones.Fortunately, the captain maneuvered flexibly, and as soon as he turned the rudder, the boulder fell into the sea beside the ship, hitting thousands of waves, and almost capsized the ship and sank in the sea.Then the eagle also threw down the big stone that was in her claws, and this time the stone hit the rudder of the boat and smashed the stern of the boat, and in a second the boat sank, with passengers and cargo in the sea. I struggled to escape.By the grace of Allah, I caught hold of a wrecked plank and floated on the surface of the sea, when the wind and waves pushed me to a deserted island. At that time, I was dying, and I lay down on the seashore for a while, regained my energy and calmed down, and then I got up and walked slowly. I found that this deserted island seemed like a paradise, with dense forests, gurgling rivers, singing birds, numerous fruits on the trees, and all kinds of flowers blooming everywhere.I live on wild fruits and river water.I was stranded on a deserted island, and I didn't see a single person all day long.When it was dark, I lay down on the ground and slept.When I woke up the next morning, I went to a stream in the woods and saw an old man sitting there, with a dignified appearance, wearing trousers made of leaves.I thought: "This old man may be one of those travelers who drowned in the sea like me." I went over to greet him.He didn't speak, but gestured persistently for an answer. I asked him, "Old man, why are you sitting here?" He shook his head, looking sad.He gestured to me to carry him to another river.I thought: "Just carry him over there, good will be rewarded with good." So I carried him on my back and took him to where he was going. When I arrived at the destination, I said, "Old man, come down slowly."