One day I found several dry calabashes that had fallen from a tree. I
took a large one, and after cleaning it, pressed into it some juice of
grapes, which abounded in the island. Having filled the calabash, I
put it by in a convenient place, and going thither again some days
after, I tasted it, and found the wine so good that it gave me new
vigor, and so exhilarated my spirits that I began to sing and dance as
I carried my burden.
The old man, perceiving the effect which this had upon me, and that I
carried him with more ease than before, made me a sign to give him
some of it. I handed him the calabash, and the liquor pleasing his
palate, he drank it off. There being a considerable quantity of it, he
soon began to sing, and to move about from side to side in his seat
upon my shoulders, and by degrees to loosen his legs from about me.
Finding that he did not press me as before, I threw him upon the
ground, where he lay without motion. I then took up a great stone and
slew him.
I was extremely glad to be thus freed forever from this troublesome
fellow. I now walked toward the beach, where I met the crew of a ship
that had cast anchor, to take in water. They were surprised to see me,
but more so at hearing the particulars of my adventures.
"You fell," said they, "into the hands of the old man of the sea, and
are the first who ever escaped strangling by his malicious embraces.
He never quitted those he had once made himself master of, till he had
destroyed them, and he has made this island notorious by the number of
men he has slain.
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