Page:Swahili tales.djvu/137

Rh the gazelle is ill." The woman started, and asked, "What ails him?" She said, "All his body, master, pains him, he has no part without pain."

"Oh! very well, what am I to do? Look out the mtama, that felefele sort, and make it some gruel and give it." His wife stared, she says, "Master, are you going to tell her to make the gazelle gruel of the felefele mtama, which if a horse had it given him he would not eat, but would refuse it? Eh! master, you are not doing well."

And he said, "Oh! get out there, you are mad; rice they give to us people; is it little for it to get mtama?"

And she said, "This, master, is not like a gazelle; it is the apple of your eye; if sand got into that, it would trouble you."

"Ah! you have plenty to say, you woman there."

The old woman went down-stairs. When the old woman saw the gazelle, she stood astounded, and tears started out abundantly, and she wept much. "Ah! gazelle."

And it asked her, "How is it, mother? I sent you, and to come back and do nothing but cry, do you not give me an answer as to what I sent you about? If it be good, give me the answer, and if it be bad give me the answer; for this is the state of the world, if you do a man good, he will do you evil. So I am not served this way myself only, people have gone before in old times who were treated in this way." And it said, "Tell me now."

And she said, "My mouth is full of spittle, and my tongue fills my mouth. I cannot tell you the things I was told, nor can I treat you as I was directed."

And it said, "Mother, what you were directed, and what you were told to do for me, do for me, and what you were told to tell me, tell me. And do not fear to tell, and do not be ashamed to tell me, for it is not you who tell me. I know him who said it; explain it to me, mother."