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Presently the current ran counter to us, and we found ourselves

in strange waters, where the Captain had lost his reckoning, and

was wholly bewildered in this sea; so said we to the look out

man,[FN#256] "Get thee to the mast head and keep thine eyes

open." He swarmed up the mast and looked out and cried aloud, "O

Rais, I espy to starboard something dark, very like a fish

floating on the face of the sea, and to larboard there is a loom

in the midst of the main, now black and now bright." When the

Captain heard the look out's words he dashed his turband on the

deck and plucked out his beard and beat his face saying, "Good

news indeed!