"
"Holy prophet! who can understand such stuff? Speak plain, do you laugh
at our beards?"
"Min Allah! God forbid! Your servant would indeed eat dirt," replied
Huckaback.
* * * * *
I meant to imply, that so powerful was the wind, it almost bore me up,
and when I first struck the water, which I did upon the summit of a
wave, I bounded off again and _ricochetted_ several times from one wave
to another, like the shot fired from a gun along the surface of the sea,
or the oyster-shell skimmed over the lake by the truant child. The last
bound that I gave, pitched me into the rigging of a small vessel on her
beam ends, and I hardly had time to fetch my breath before she turned
over. I scrambled up her bends, and fixed myself astride upon her keel.
There I remained for two or three hours, when the hurricane was
exhausted from its own violence. The clouds disappeared, the sun burst
out in all its splendour, the sea recovered its former tranquillity,
and Nature seemed as if she was maliciously smiling at her own mischief.
The land was close to me, and the vessel drifted on shore. I found that
I was at the Isle of France, having, in the course of twelve hours thus
miraculously shifted my position from one side of the globe unto the
other. I found the island in a sad state of devastation; the labour of
years had been destroyed in the fury of an hour--the crops were swept
away--the houses were levelled to the ground--the vessels in fragments
on the beach--all was misery and desolation.
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