Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/75

 Some Notes oti East African Folklore. 65

put these on also. Then she set out for the place where the case was being tried. When she reached the baraza it was the third hour of the morning {i.e. 9 a.m.). The owner of the money said, ' Come, give me my money now, for this is the day we agreed on.' The poor man said, ' Sir ! I have not yet got your money ! ' The owner of the money said, ' I do not know (whether you have or not) — what I do know is that to-day is the day of our agreement and of the document {khaii).' The poor man said, ' Do as it pleases you, sir.' So he said, ' Now I will cut the flesh from your thigh.' And he ordered men to sharpen knives, and also that there should be a man ready to cut that piece of flesh.

" Now the woman came and spoke before the court, saying, ' What has this man done, that he should have flesh cut out of his thigh } ' Those assembled replied, ' Sir, this is (a matter of a) debt,^ and it was agreed between (the parties) that after the space of one month and fifteen days of the second month the creditor should get his money, and if the debtor had none, he should take the flesh of his thigh : so to-day the time is up and he has no money, and it is fitting that (the creditor) should take the flesh of his thigh.'

" The wife spoke, with a good and beautiful voice (sic) like that of a man, and said these words : ' Take off" your trousers' {suruali)' and he did so; then she said, 'You with the knives, come here,' and they came, and she said, '' Let the creditor draw near himself, because if it had been money he would have had no hesitation in receiving it him- self, and also (the debtor) received this gentleman's money in his own hands ; so to-day the judgment of this court is

®The current expression ntali ya wattt, "(other) people's property," is curiously suggestive of aes aliemii/i.

'Worn by Indians. Later on the European words koti and shati are used, but these denote Indian as well as European garments ; the Indian shirt is somewhat difterent from the Arab kaiizii. The sash {mshipi) referred to later on is Indian.

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