The next day, when his guest came, the table was laden with delicious food and wine. Sindbad invited him and the other guests to eat and then he continued the story of his second voyage.
Sindbad told him how he had become restless and wished to travel again. So once again, he bought goods and, with other merchants, he set sail. They travelled from island to island, selling their goods.
One day, they came to an island full of trees laden with fruits and saw springs and streams sparkling with fresh water. But the island seemed to be deserted. There were no people or houses to be seen anywhere. While his companions wandered around eating the fruits and exploring the island. Sindbad lay down in the shade of a tree and fell asleep.
He awoke later and found that all his companions and the ship had gone! He thought that he would only be able to see the whole area if he was at a great height. So, he climbed up a tall tree to look out to the sea, but there was no sign of the ship. He looked inwards at the island and his eyes fell on a large, white object. He climbed down from the tree and went towards it.
He came upon it after a while. It was a huge white ball. He walked all around it and looked at it from all sides. But he could find no footholds to climb, nor did it have any opening to enter. Suddenly, the sky was overcast.
When it became dark, Sindbad thought at first that perhaps it was going to rain. Looking up, Sindbad saw that the cloud was coming closer to him. To his astonishment, it turned out to be an enormous bird hovering above. He remembered the stories he had heard from sailors about this great bird. It was called roc. He realised that the white ball must be its egg.
Sure enough, the roc came down and sat down on its egg, arranging its wings and feathers to cover it. Sindbad watched it settle down. Finding a leg of the roc close to him, Sindbad took off his turban and tied himself firmly to its leg with his turban.
‘It will fly away in the morning to look for food,’ thought Sindbad, ‘Then I will be carried out of this island and can hope to escape!’
At dawn, the roc spread its huge wings and took off, carrying Sindbad on its leg. It flew over many lands and seas. Close to an island far out at sea, it swooped down. Sindbad lost consciousness for a while. He came to his senses and found the roc was sitting on the ground. Without waiting, he quickly untied himself just in time. The bird pounced on an enormous snake and carried it away!
Sindbad looked around and saw that he was in a narrow valley, surrounded by steep mountains. On the floor of the valley lay huge diamonds. But there were also hundreds of snakes. He had never seen or imagined such enormous snakes in his life. The smallest of the snakes was big enough to swallow an elephant!
They were all slithering back into caves as the day began. Apparently they came out only at night. ‘Perhaps they are afraid of the roc,’ thought Sindbad.
That night, Sindbad hid himself in a cave, closing its mouth with a rock. Early in the morning, he sat on a rock and wondered what to do.
He saw huge pieces of meat falling around him in the valley with a thud. He remembered the stories he had heard. At the time when eagles had their young ones to feed, sailors and merchants threw the meat into the valley so that the diamonds might stick to them. Then the large eagles would swoop down to carry the meat to their fledglings. The merchants had fixed their respective nests. They would shoo away the birds from their nests and pick up the diamonds.
Sindbad picked up the biggest diamonds he could find and pushed them into a large piece of meat. Then he tied this on his back with his turban and lay down on his face. ‘Surely an eagle would pick up the meat,’ he thought, ‘Then I will be lifted out of this terrible valley along with it!’
An eagle swooped down soon and carried him off with the meat to its nest. One of the merchants owned that nest and came looking for diamonds as usual. He was amazed to see Sindbad there.
Sindbad told him all about his adventure and offered the diamonds to the merchant, but the man was honest. He took only one and asked Sindbad to accompany him and his companions to their ship.
They sailed back towards his land. On the way they came to the island of Rohat where there were great camphor trees. “I was amazed to see an animal called rhinoceros. The animal had a huge horn that was strong and sharp. It fought against an elephant, goring it and carrying it on its horn. But the elephant’s blood would blind the rhinoceros and then it would fall to the ground. The roc would then swoop down to carry off both the animals to feed its young!” narrated Sindbad.
Sindbad bought more goods with the diamonds he had collected. He sold the goods and merchandise, and became rich with his sales. Then he sailed to the port of Balsora. From there, he along with some companions returned once again to his home in Baghdad.
Once he had told the story of his second voyage, he presented another hundred sequins to Hindbad. When the guests left the feast, Sindbad said he would tell him another story the next day.
