“I was never comfortable being idle for long. I wished to travel once more. But I decided to build my own ship and travel in it next time,” said Sindbad to his guests, “And I invited merchants from other nations to travel with me and they willingly agreed.” The story of his fifth voyage ran as follows:
Sindbad and merchants set sail this time in his own ship carrying merchandise for trading. After travelling for many weeks, one day, they landed on an island that seemed to be uninhabited. Wandering over it, they came upon a roc’s egg that was nearly hatched.
Sindbad told the merchants to leave the egg alone. But the merchants, ignoring Sindbad’s advice, broke the egg with an axe and killed the baby roc. Then they roasted it over a fire and ate it.
Suddenly, two huge shadows seemed to cover the sky. The parents of the roc had discovered their dead baby and were maddened with grief. The merchants ran in panic to their ship as the rocs swooped down to attack them.
They boarded the ship and sailed away, but the rocs followed them carrying huge rocks in their claws. One of them dropped a rock but luckily it fell into the sea. They were not lucky when the second rock fell on the ship, smashing it to bits. Everyone on the ship was hurled into the water. Sindbad had no idea as to what happened to the others.
He hung on to a log of wood from the ship and drifted with it. He reached an island with a steep rocky shore. He sat on the soft green grass and found there were trees with flowers and fruits all around. Having eaten to his heart’s content, he fell asleep.
When he awoke, he went inland and came upon a feeble old man sitting on the bank of a river. The man could not speak but he managed to tell Sindbad through signals that he wished to go across the river to eat the luscious fruits that grew on the other bank.
Kind-hearted Sindbad picked up the old man on his back. He wrapped his arms and legs around him as Sindbad waded across the river. But the shock came to Sindbad when the old man refused to get off his back! He held the sailor in such a strong grip that Sindbad fainted in a trice.
He came back to consciousness to find that the old man was still hanging on to him! The old man ate the fruit that he plucked off the trees, still clutching Sindbad. Even when Sindbad lay down to rest, he kept hold of him!
For days the old man stuck to Sindbad who was exhausted carrying him around. One day, Sindbad plucked some grapes and put them into a hollow fruit where it slowly became wine. Then as he walked around with the old man on his shoulders, he took a sip of the wine. He began to sing and jig around.
The old man thought the wine must be something special and grabbed it and drank it. He was soon drunk and his hold on Sindbad loosened. Sindbad flung him onto the ground where he lay still while he himself ran swiftly from there.
Sindbad ran all the way to the sea-shore. Fortunately, he saw some mariners there. When he told them his story, they were amazed.
“That is the Old Man of the Sea!” they said, “No one has ever lived after meeting him because he strangles everyone who makes the mistake of going near him!”
The sailors took him with them and sailed away. They reached a prosperous town which had stone houses and even a lodging for strangers.
The next day one of the merchants, who had become Sindbad’s friend, gave him a sack and asked him to go with the others and do whatever they did.
“Just don’t stray away from them!” he warned, “For you will be in great danger then!”
Sindbad saw the merchants filling their sacks with coconuts but he didn’t know how to collect them. The coconut trees were tall and their trunks were too smooth to climb.
Then Sindbad saw that there were monkeys all over the trees. He was surprised to see the merchants throwing stones at them. But the next minute, he understood. The merchants knew that the monkeys would imitate their actions. Since they had only coconuts on the treetops, the monkeys began to throw coconuts at them! And the merchants filled their sacks quickly.
Laughing at the trick, Sindbad also joined them in throwing stones and collected coconuts. He sold them to other merchants in the city. He soon become a very wealthy man.
One day, he heard that a trading ship had come to the harbour and was now ready to sail. He met the captain and told him all about his adventures. The captain agreed to take Sindbad with him on the ship. Therefore after wishing his friends goodbye, taking a cargo of coconuts, Sindbad sailed in the ship towards his home.
They stopped at an island where aloeswood and pepper grew. It was a marvellous place where no one drank wine. They collected pepper and aloeswood too. The sea around the island was known for its pearl fishing. So, they too fished for pearls.
All the way home they traded in the rich merchandise they had collected. And by the time they reached home at Baghdad, the merchants, and particularly Sindbad, had become very rich.
Once again, Sindbad presented Hindbad a hundred gold sequins before he left and asked him to return the next day to hear about his next voyage.
