We found it to be a palace, elegantly built, and
very lofty, with a gate of ebony of two leaves, which we opened. We
saw before us a large apartment, with a porch, having on one side a
heap of human bones, and on the other a vast number of roasting spits.
We trembled at this spectacle, and were seized with deadly
apprehension, when suddenly the gate of the apartment opened with a
loud crash, and there came out the horrible figure of a black man, as
tall as a lofty palm tree. He had but one eye, and that in the middle
of his forehead, where it blazed bright as a burning coal. His
foreteeth were very long and sharp, and stood out of his mouth, which
was as deep as that of a horse. His upper lip hung down upon his
breast. His ears resembled those of an elephant, and covered his
shoulders; and his nails were as long and crooked as the talons of the
greatest birds. At the sight of so frightful a genie we became
insensible, and lay like dead men.
At last we came to ourselves, and saw him sitting in the porch looking
at us. When he had considered us well, he advanced toward us, and
laying his hand upon me, took me up by the nape of my neck, and turned
me around, as a butcher would do a sheep's head. After having examined
me, and perceiving me to be so lean that I was nothing but skin and
bone, he let me go. He took up all the rest one by one, and viewed
them in the same manner. The captain being the fattest, he held him
with one hand, as I would do a sparrow, and thrust a spit through him;
he then kindled a great fire, roasted, and ate him in his apartment
for his supper.
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