Reading Diary B: The Voyages of Sindbad

Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor, by Gustave Doré

Link to image

In the Fifth Voyage, Sindbad actually shows enough savvy to buy his own ship and hire his own crew, which would give them much more incentive to look for him if he went amiss again. This happens, of course, after he and his crew escape a pair of angry rocs. Sindbad is thrown from his ship when one of the large stones that the angry birds volley destroy the vessel. He washes up on a paradise island, apparently, and encounters an old man. He attempts to help this elder wade across a stream, but he is suddenly choked by the decrepit man. Sindbad attempts to escape, but every time he gets up to walk away, the old man resumes tightening his grip. Sindbad receives some respite when he is able to drink the wine juice from a wild gourd. Realizing how it benefits Sindbad, the old cretin snatches the gourd to the last drop. This makes the old man drunk and woozy enough for Sindbad to escape.


Sindbad sets his expedition far away from the Persian Gulf for the Sixth Voyage, after resting back in Baghdad from his previous incursion of course. Due to a storm that drives him and his crew off course, they land in the "most dangerous spot upon the whole wide sea", according to the captain. Upon the island that they were stranded, Sindbad watches as his crew mates both make their graves and die in them from starvation. Not willing to let himself face the same fate, Sindbad makes a raft so that he can escape. He rides the raft down the river of the strange land, only to meet a group local natives. Sindbad is rescued by them and is kept well, telling his story to them which leaves them in astonishment. He returns to his own country after seeing the mountain that Adam was banished out of Paradise through.


On the Seventh and final Voyage, Sindbad once again feels the pangs of adventure tugging at him, and this time to deliver a letter to King of Serendib to establish friendship. He sets out with not just a letter, but many gifts in order to appease the foreign King. He delivers all of these things to the King of Serendib without issue, and received many presents himself from the nation's leader. After this, however, Sindbad and his crew are assaulted by pirates and have all their precious belongings confiscated. After this ordeal, his crew is rescued by a merchant, who recruits them to hunt elephants on a nearby island with the rest of his crew. Eventually, Sindbad fells one of them, and buried it so that the merchant would be able to recover the tusks when he returned. One day, after months of hunting elephants from the same tree (as per the merchant's request), Sindbad is attacked by a herd of the same type of elephants he killed. They bring him to a burial ground of elephants, so that he won't kill any more of their number by weaponized means. Indeed this works, and Sindbad appeases the merchant by the wealth of tusks that he collects. After this Sindbad returns to Baghdad and retires for the rest of his days, spreading his tales to family and friends.