This was a new
perplexity, so that when I compared this place with the desert
island from which the roc brought me, I found that I had gained
nothing by the change.
As I walked through this valley I perceived it was strewn with
diamonds, some of which were of surprising bigness. I took a great
deal of pleasure in looking at them; but speedily I saw at a
distance such objects as very much diminished my satisfaction, and
which I could not look upon without terror; they were a great
number of serpents, so big and so long that the least of them was
capable of swallowing an elephant. They retired in the day-time to
their dens, where they hid themselves from the roc, their enemy,
and did not come out but in the night-time.
I spent the day in walking about the valley, resting myself at
times in such places as I thought most suitable. When night came on
I went into a cave, where I thought I might be in safety. I stopped
the mouth of it, which was low and straight, with a great stone, to
preserve me from the serpents, but not so exactly fitted as to
hinder light from coming in. I supped on part of my provisions, but
the serpents, which began to appear, hissing about in the meantime,
put me into such extreme fear that you may easily imagine I did not
sleep.
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