But when I found myself on the ground,
I speedily untied the knot, and had scarcely done so, when the roc,
having taken up a serpent of a monstrous length in her bill, flew
away.
The spot where it left me was encompassed on all sides by mountains,
that seemed to reach above the clouds, and so steep that there was no
possibility of getting out of the valley. This was a new perplexity;
so that when I compared this place with the desert island from which
the roc had brought me, I found that I had gained nothing by the
change.
[Footnote 52: Mr. More, in his account of these voyages, says that
Marco Polo, in his _Travels_, and Father Martini, in his _History of
China_, speak of this bird, called _ruch_, and say it will take up an
elephant and a rhinoceros. It is as fabulous as the dodo, the
salamander, or the phoenix.]
As I walked through this valley, I perceived it was strewn with
diamonds, some of which were of surprising bigness. I took pleasure in
looking upon them; but shortly I saw at a distance such objects as
greatly diminished my satisfaction, and which I could not view without
terror, namely, a great number of serpents, so monstrous that the
least of them was capable of swallowing an elephant. They retired in
the daytime to their dens, where they hid themselves from the roc,
their enemy, and came out only in the night.
I spent the day in walking about in the valley, resting myself at
times in such places as I thought most convenient.
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