How The Gray Beard Turned Black
Once in awhile, we meet people who have strange stories to tell. A young merchant, upon traveling to a distant port, saw a Moor whose features appeared familiar to him. "Why are you gazing at me?" asked the Moor, kindly. "I had visited this port many years ago, in the company of my father. Then I was a boy. But I remember having met a Moor who was my father's friend. He was old and he must have departed to the other world. But you resemble him. I wonder if you are his son or grandson," remarked the young merchant. The Moor smiled and instead of replying to the merchant directly, invited him to his own house. When the merchant came to the Moor's house, he was warmly received. The Moor showed the guest many rare things he had collected in the course of his several trips to faraway lands, particularly to Cathay.
Among the objects shown by the Moor was a quill as big as the sail of a ship. The young merchant marveled at it and wished to know what it was. "Young man, I was keen to draw your attention to this prized possession of mine. Have you heard about the roc bird?" asked the Moor. "Indeed, I have. They are huge birds who live in the rocky islands of the ocean," said the young man. "It is so. The quill is from the tender wing of a young roc," informed the Moor and he narrated the following incident: Once the Moor and his party of mariners came ashore an unknown island. No man seems to have ever set his foot on that island which was made up of hills and jungles. As the mariners climbed a hill to cast a look at the surrounding, they saw something like a round boulder resting on a rock. It was marble-white and it glistened in the sunshine. "It is a roc's egg!" exclaimed the most experienced man in the party. All were excited. They looked around. No roc was to be found. "Let us break it and carry the flesh of its chick," proposed one of them. At once they brought down their axes on the egg. The shell gave away. The huge roc chick emerged. The mariners killed it in a prompt operation and carried a basketful of its meat into their ship. The Moor dragged a feather along with him. They set sail hurriedly before it was evening. The wind was favorable and soon they left the island miles behind. It was dawn when they noticed something like a dark cloud fast approaching their ship.
"Save us, O God, this is a roc, perhaps the mother of the egg we destroyed!" cried out those of the mariners who knew the giant bird. In a minute the terrible bird was right overhead. It was noticed that it carried in its claws a large boulder. It circled over the ship menacingly and then dropped the boulder. The mariners shut their eyes. Luckily, for them, the boulder fell not on the ship but near it, making a fearful splash. The roc screamed and flew back towards the island. The mariners thanked Providence for protecting them from its wrath. They now cooked the meat and feasted over it. It was in the morning the next day that they found out what the meat had done to them The graybeards of the aged ones looked black. They had grown young! "Young man, it was not my father or my grandfather who was your father's friend, but myself. I remember having seen you with your father. You could not recognize me because I had partaken of the roc's meat," the Moor revealed to the amazed merchant.
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