Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/380

 360 Cairene Folklore.

to fetch Neba in order that she might help her. When the slave reached the house she began to call to her : ' Neba, wife of Kheba ! ' No one answered her. The slave opened the door and found the two sitting opposite each other. The slave said to her : * Get up, ma'am, and act as midwife.' She rose and went with her to the house. When the woman had given birth, they killed a sheep, and gave the inwards to Neba. Neba gave them to the slave and told her to carry them to Kheba. The slave took them, and went to the house ; she cries : ' O Kheba, husband of Neba ! ' No one answered her. The slave got angry, opened the door, and went in ; there she found Kheba sitting, and said to him : ' Take it, Kheba ; this is what Neba has sent you.' No reply was made to her. As he did not answer her, the slave put the tripe round his head, wound the intestines round his neck, and left him and went away. The dogs smelt the savour (of the tripe) ; they came gradually nearer and nearer to him ; when they got up to him no one drove them away, so they pulled at the intestines and the fellow falls down ; they continue to drag him as far as the Nile. A fisherman passed by ; when he drew up his net, Kheba was in the net. The fisherman cried : ' Are you a man or a spirit ? ' There was no answer. The fisherman thought to himself : ' I will take him and make a show of him ; I shall make more money thereby than out of my fishing.' So he threw him over his shoulder and went his way. Neba went home, but did not find Kheba ; she said : ' Perhaps he has gone to wash the inwards.' She went to the river to see, and found the fisherman carrying him. 'What's the matter, Kheba ? ^ she asked. 'Ah, you have to moisten the bread ' he shouted (because she had been the first to speak). The fisherman exclaimed: 'Get down and a curse be on you ! Is it only about moistening the bread that you have made this row ? ' " ^

' Kan fi wahid ragil ismo Kheba ; kan mitgawwiz waida hism'ha Neba : er- lagil mashi wahid yom, laqa wahida haga kuvvaiyyisa ketir : qallo : " linfa