Page:Swahili tales.djvu/135

Rh well, my gazelle; well, my slave; well, my shoe! How did you get this house? How did you get this town? Who is the owner of this town? Who is the owner of this house? Or have you rented this house? Or have you had this town given you? Or this town, were there no people in it, ten or even one? Well then, mother, what state of things is this? All the good things I have done for the master, he has not one day done me any good thing; he knew who came here with him; this house is not his, and this land is not his; ever since he was born he never saw a house like this, nor ever saw a town like this. Well, he never called me even in sport, and asked me. But people say, it is not well to do people good like a mother; and the elders said, 'If you want to do any one good, don't do him good only, do him evil also, then there will be peace between you. And it said, "So, mother, I have done; I want to see the favours I have done to my master, that he may do me the like." And she said, "Very good, father." And they slept.

And in the morning when it dawned, the gazelle was sick in its stomach and feverish, and its legs all ached. And it said, "Mother." And she answered, "Here, father." And it said, "Go and tell my master upstairs, the gazelle is very ill." And she said, "Very good, father; and if he should ask me, what does it ail, how am I to answer him?" "Tell him, all my body aches badly; I have no single part that does not pain me."

The old woman went upstairs, and she found the mistress and master sitting on a couch of marble, with a mattress of mdarahani, and a large cushion on this side and that, while they were chewing betel leaf, both wife and husband.

And they asked her, "Well, old woman, what have you come wanting?" And she said, "To tell the master that