roof of the subterraneous palace, which opened to give him passage. He ascended with me into the air to such a height, that the earth appeared like a little white cloud. He then descended again like lightning, and alighted upon the summit of a mountain.
Here he took up a handful of earth, and, muttering some words which I did not understand, threw it upon me. “Quit,” said he, “the form of a man and take that of an ape.” He instantly disappeared, and left me alone, transformed into an ape, in a strange country, not knowing whether I was near or far from my father’s dominions.
I descended the mountain, and entered a level country, which took me a month to travel over, and then I came to the sea. It happened at the time to be perfectly calm, and I espied a vessel about a half league from the shore. Unwilling to lose so good an opportunity, I broke off a large branch from a tree, carried it into the sea, and got astride upon it, with a stick in each hand, to serve me for oars.
I launched out on this frail bark, and rowed toward the ship. When I had approached sufficiently near to be seen, the seamen and passengers on the deck regarded me with astonishment. In the mean time I got on board, and laying hold of a rope, jumped upon the deck, but having lost my speech, I found myself in great perplexity; and indeed the risk I ran was not less than when I was at the mercy of the genie.
The merchants, being superstitious, thought if they re-
83
