Reading Notes: Voyages of Sindbad, Part B

Sindbad’s fifth voyage: The story starts out as Sindbad is retelling a journey that he set on his own ship with sailors from different countries. As they passed an island they saw a roc’s egg, which Sindbad warned from damaging. The crew members did not adhere to him and chose to break the egg and cook the meat. The parents of the egg soon returned and destroyed the ship. The difference in citizenship might have been the reason why Sindbad’s word was broken. Sindbad was the only survivor of the ship. This shows that the person with good intentions sometimes gets lucky in certain incidents. Later on, he drifted to an island full of fruits. He there encountered the Old Man of the Sea. Sindbad being the nice character he is, he accepted to help the old man grip on to him to climb trees and gather fruit. It lasted for several days and Sindbad started to get tired of carrying the old man, so he had to figure a way to make him let go. They found some grapes and a gourd and prepared some wine. As they both drank wine, the Old man’s grip relaxed due to drunkenness. Sindbad escaped the grip and the old man died. Sindbad then went on the ship until he reached another small town where he met other merchants. There were coconut trees that were inaccessible so the merchants started throwing rocks at the monkeys that were at the top of the tree. The monkeys countered back with throwing coconuts, which the merchants took and sold to make money. Sindbad then returned even richer and gave money back to impoverished porter.

Sindbad's Fifth Voyage

Sindbad’s sixth voyage: This story is unlike others by seeing how Sindbad is respected worldwide. This time Sindbad set to voyage to India but struggled like no other time. The island they were stranded on had bones that littered the area. Then Sindbad with his plan to survive, reached Serendib and was able to quickly befriend the king of Serendib. This shows the strong character of Sindbad. He was able to mingle and gain respect of royalty although he was nothing but a sailor. The king enjoyed his company that he honored him with sending many tokens of friendship to Caliph Harun al-Rashid. This created peace among the two kingdoms. Sindbad then gifted 100 sequins to the impoverished porter which continues to show his great generosity.