Sinbad or Sindbad, the Sailor

Sinbad or Sindbad, the Sailor

A famous story in the Arabian Nights. Sinbad is a merchant of Bagdad who acquires great wealth. He goes on seven voyages, which he describes to a poor discontented porter named Hindbad, to show him that wealth must be obtained by enterprise and personal exertion.

First Voyage

Being becalmed in the Indian Ocean, he and some others of the crew visit what they suppose to be an island, but which is in reality a huge whale asleep. They light a fire on the whale, and the heat wakes the creature, which instantly dives under water. Sinbad is picked up by some merchants, and in due time returns home.

Second Voyage

Sinbad is left, during sleep, on a desert island, and discovers a roc's egg, "fifty paces in circumference." He fastens himself to the claw of the bird and is deposited in the valley of diamonds. Next day, some merchants come to the top of the crags and throw into the valley huge joints of raw meat, to which the diamonds stick, and when the eagles pick up the meat, the merchants scare them from their nests and carry off the diamonds. Sinbad then fastens himself to a piece of meat, is carried by an eagle to its nest, and being rescued by the merchants, returns home laden with diamonds.

Third Voyage is the encounter with the Cyclops.

Fourth Voyage

Sinbad marries a lady of rank in a strange island on which he is cast; when his wife dies, he is buried alive with the dead body, according to the custom of the land. He makes his way out of the catacomb and returns to Bagdad, greatly enriched by valuables rifled from the dead bodies.

Fifth Voyage

The ship in which he sails is dashed to pieces by huge stones let down from the talons of two angry rocs. Sinbad swims to a desert island, where he throws stones at the monkeys, and the monkeys throw back cocoanuts. On this island Sinbad encounters and kills the Old Man of the Sea.

Sixth Voyage

Sinbad visits the island of Serendip (or Ceylon) and climbs to the top of the mountain "where Adam was placed on his expulsion from Paradise."

Seventh Voyage

He is attacked by corsairs, sold to slavery, and employed in shooting from a tree at elephants. He discovers a tract of hill country completely covered with elephants' tusks, communicates his discovery to his master, obtains his liberty, and returns home.