HKB
from such honest gentlemen, but, if there was necessity for it, I was ready to submit; and, let it cost what it would, I begged them to grant my request.
The ten gentlemen, perceiving that I was positive in my resolution, took a sheep and killed it, and, after they had taken off the skin, presented me with the knife, telling me it would be useful to me on a certain occasion, which they should tell me of presently. We must sew you into this skin, said they, and then leave you; upon which a fowl of monstrous size, called a roc, will appear in the air, and, taking you to be a sheep, will come down upon you, and carry you up to the very sky; but let not that frighten you, he will come down again with you, and lay you upon the top of a mountain. When you find yourself upon the ground, cut the skin with the knife, and throw it off. As soon as the roc sees you, he will fly away for fear, and leave you at liberty. Do not stay, but walk on till you come to a prodigious castle, all covered with plates of gold, large emeralds, and other precious stones: Go up to the gate, which always stands open, and walk in: We have been in the castle as long as we have been here: We will tell you nothing of what we saw, or what befel us there, because you will learn it yourself; all that we can inform you is, that it has cost each of us our right eye, and the penance which you have been witness to is what we are obliged to do, because we have been there. The history of each of us in particular is so full of extraordinary adventures, that a large volume would not contain them; but we must explain ourselves no further.