Page:Swahili tales.djvu/147

Rh sugar-cane, and the master was told, "The old woman is here crying." And she said, "Master, the gazelle is very ill, we think him nearer dying than getting well."

And he said, "I have told you not to bother me,"

His wife said to him, "O master, won't you go down and see the apple of your eye? won't you go down and see your gazelle? won't you go down and see your shoe? won't you go down and see your clerk? won't you go down and see your overlooker? And if you don't like to go down, let me go and see him. Now from you ten nor even one, he gets no good thing."

And he said, "Go and tell the gazelle, as people die once, let it die eleven times."

His wife said to him, "Ah! master, what has the gazelle done to you? What has the gazelle failed you in? Such words as these a man only uses to his enemy, whom he does not like to see. You and the gazelle, what enmity have you? Master, the things you are doing to him are not good, either for you to do, or to do them to the gazelle. People when they hear it will deride you. For this gazelle is not insignificant, the gazelle is loved from the gentry to the slaves, the gazelle is loved by the small even to the great, the gazelle is loved by women and by men. Well then, you, master, why do you hate this gazelle? And this is not like a gentleman. A gentleman, if he is done good to, pays back good. A gentleman is not done good to and pays evil, this is not being a gentleman. Now with you, ten things even to one, he has no good from you. If you do not love this gazelle for his beauty, love him for his speech; if you do not love him for his speech, love him because he is your man, whom you send hither and thither; if you do not love him for this, love him because he knows the honour due to different people; if you do not love him for these