Kitap 1
30
When we touched the water it was wonderful to see the excesses of our joy and delight. We made what cheer our means would allow, and sprang overboard and swam about, for there happened to be a calm and the sea was quiet. But a change for the better seems to be often the beginning of greater evils, and so it was in our case. For two days only we sailed with fine weather, and at daybreak, on the third, just before sunrise, we suddenly sighted a great number of sea-monsters and whales, with one among them bigger than all the rest, a hundred and seventy miles long. It came on with its mouth yawning open, making wide commotion in the sea, scattering foam in all directions, and showing its great teeth. They were all as sharp as pickets and white as ivory. Well, we said our last farewells, embraced each other, and waited. The creature was already alongside, and swallowed us down at a gulp, ship and all. However, it did not close its teeth in time to crush us, but the ship slipped in through the openings.
31
When we were within, all was dark at first, and we saw nothing; but presently the creature opened its mouth, and we beheld a great cavern, so broad in all directions and so high that it might have held a city of ten thousand souls. In the midst lay the fragments of small fish and other animals, sails of ships, anchors, human bones, and merchandise; and down the middle there was dry land, with hills formed, I suppose, by the settling of the mud the creature drank down. At all events, there were woods on it, and plants of all sorts grew there and vegetables had sprung up, so that it was in all respects like tilled soil. The circumference of the land was twenty-seven miles. We could also see sea-fowl, gulls, and halcyons building nests in the trees.
