I remembered a fowl, called roc, that I had often heard
mariners speak of, and conceived that the great bowl, which I so
much admired, must needs be its egg. In short, the bird lighted,
and sat over the egg to hatch it. As I perceived her coming, I
crept close to the egg, so that I had before me one of the legs of
the bird, which was as big as the trunk of a tree. I tied myself
strongly to it with the cloth that went round my turban, in hopes
that when the roc flew away next morning she would carry me with
her out of this desert island. And after having passed the night in
this condition, the bird really flew away next morning, as soon as
it was day, and carried me so high that I could not see the earth.
Then she descended all of a sudden, with so much rapidity that I
lost my senses; but when the roc was settled, and I found myself
upon the ground, I speedily untied the knot, and had scarcely done
so when the bird, having taken up a serpent of a monstrous length
in her bill, flew away.
The place where she left me was a very deep valley, encompassed on
all sides with mountains, so high that they seemed to reach above
the clouds, and so full of steep rocks that there was no
possibility of getting out of the valley.
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