The Seven Voyages of Sinbad - The Fifth Voyage

THE FIFTH VOYAGE

Once again; just like the beginning of every one of Sinbad’s many voyages, Sinbad is bored of his life of comfort and dreams of adventure. He went out and bought a magnificent boat at the port of Basra, then hired a captain and a crew.

Sinbad returned to trading and profiting from such trade, making a great sum of money.

Sinbad and his crew come upon an isolated island that they have never seen nor heard of. Sinbad knew that he did not want anything to do with this island, but his fellow sailors became curious about the massive rock that was on it. Half of it was lodged into the earth, while the other half was sticking out.

After convincing Sinbad to dock on the island, they approached the rock with a great curiosity. Its texture was so smooth, that they believed it was an egg. That’s when they began to throw stones at it, hoping its shell would break.

When they did make a crack, the object broke open and out poured water. They found a giant baby bird within that they soon turned into dinner.

As they feasted upon its meat, Sinbad was keen to join them until he realized who this baby bird belonged to – the bird he had met before, with talons like a tree trunk!

“What have you done!” Sinbad cried out, “this is the child of a monstrously large bird, and now she’s going to come and destroy us all!”

Sinbad and his crew rushed back out onto their ship and into the sea, but it wasn’t long until they noticed a massive black shadow descend upon them. Within her talons she held a massive rock, which she dropped onto the ship.

Water broke into Sinbad’s ship. Another massive bird; assumed to be the father of the egg, dropped another massive rock that smashed through the ship’s deck.

Now the entire crew was left swimming in the treacherous waters. Sinbad held onto a piece of wood from the wreckage in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

Eventually he washed ashore on another island, one that seemed to resemble a paradise. It was entirely green, full of singing birds and low-hanging fruit.

Sinbad was then approached by a man wearing nothing but a cloth that was wrapped around his waist. This man gestured to Sinbad to carry him on his shoulders. The old man wanted to cross the stream nearby but did not want to get wet. Sinbad obliged.

The thing is; no matter what Sinbad did for this man, the man would still stay on his shoulders. If Sinbad did not do his very bidding, he would begin to kick his sides as punishment.

At some point; Sinbad gave up completely at getting rid of the man, which led to him sleeping with the man still on his shoulders.

“My Lord, all I tried to do was help a man that seemed to be in need,” Sinbad moaned, “but all that he has rewarded me with is abuse!”

Throughout his journey on the island with the man on his back, Sinbad found a massive field of grapes alongside a field of gourds.

He gutted any gourds he could find and placed crushed grapes within them that he then left out in the sun for many days. They soon become a strong wine that he offered to the old man.

The old man became so intoxicated from the strong wine, that he finally let go of Sinbad! While the old man lay asleep on the ground, Sinbad quickly made a run for it and ran towards the closest shore he could get to.

Just like always, he eventually caught attention of a passerby ship that helped him make his way back home.

After telling the captain of the ship of his experience on the island, the captain was met with surprise.

“That old man isn’t just any old man, he is the Old Man of the Sea, and all those that he straddles himself upon never survive to tell the tale of his deviousness!” The captain exclaimed.

The captain then took Sinbad to an interesting island, full of apes that descend from their trees only at night. The merchants of the ship would make a pathway into the island that was high enough so that they could see all the apes.

These merchants would throw little pebbles at the apes; and in response, the apes would throw back coconuts, which the merchants would collect and sell for money.

Soon enough, Sinbad made a bit of money this way too. He then traded this money for pearls on his journey back to Basra, which led him to amass another fortune.