Many years ago there lived a boy whose name was Sinbad; he longed to go to sea but his father would not let him. In a short time his father died and left him considerable property, which he sold and went to board a ship. The ship sailed to an island, where a fire was built. When they had started the fire, the whale, which had been mistaken for an island, shook violently. All went on board the ship except Sinbad, who had to swim to an island.

When Sinbad reached the island he saw some people carrying a present to their king. They bade him accompany them to the capital city.

When he reached the city he saw some ships landing. His name was cut upon some of them, so he went on board one of them. They sailed to an island, and left him. From there he walked a little way until he found some trees and climbed one. Looking around he saw a big white spot which he believed to be a village. He walked toward it and found it to be an egg of a big bird called the Roc. It took fifty paces to go around the egg.

In a moment everything was dark, and down came the Roc on its egg and stayed there until morning. When the bird rose, Sinbad clung to its leg which was as thick as the trunk of a good sized tree.

The Roc flew a short distance then lighted on a diamond field, where Sinbad filled his bag with the nicest ones. He then climbed up a mountain where he met some men, who went with him to a giant city. They went into one house where they saw a giant, with only one eye in the forehead, right above the nose.

The giant took his spit and thrust it into Sinbad's fattest companion, held him over the fire, roasted and ate him. Every day Sinbad lost one of his friends in this way. At last they had courage enough to heat some spits red hot, and thrust them into his eye while he was asleep. This made him blind. When the giant's friends heard what they had done with their friend, they went after the prisoners, and found them on the coast on rafts. The giants threw stones on the rafts and broke every one except the one on which Sinbad was. Sinbad landed on an island where he met an old man sitting by a stream, making motions to get across. Sinbad took him on his shoulder and carried him across the stream, and waited for him to loosen his hold, but he would not.

The old man made Sinbad go to every place he wanted him to go. One day while they were eating some fruit Sinbad found some grapes and put them into a stone jar to ferment. When he returned there a few days later it was good wine and he drank some of it. The Dwarf of the Stream, as the old man was called, wanted some too. Sinbad gave him so much that it made him drunk and he loosened his hold, and Sinbad threw him to the ground and killed him. When he went to the shore he grew sick and fell into the sea and drowned. At the place grew up beautiful yellow and white flowers called water-lilies by the people.

{Note: This story was included in the booklet, The Origin of Flowers, which was written in June 1906}

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