Page:Swahili tales.djvu/153

Rh notice of him for good or for evil, till the gazelle has died for indignation and bitterness within himself, and you have ordered people to throw him into the well. Ah! leave us alone and let us weep."

And the gazelle was carried, and thrown into a well, whence water was drawn.

When the mistress up-stairs heard of it, she wrote a letter in great haste, and with the greatest speed, and said, "My father, I have sent you this letter, when you have finished reading it, get upon the road and come." And she took secretly three donkeys, and gave them to three slaves, and said, "Mount and go with the greatest haste with the donkeys till you give my father the letter, and tell him, Let us go forward as quickly as we can. And you, I have made you free, and you the second, I have made you free, and you the third, I have made you free, because of this letter, that you may take it quickly."

Those men went with speed with the donkeys night and day, till they arrived and gave the letter to the Sultan. And when the Sultan had read the letter, the Sultan bowed down his head and wept much, like a man who has lost his mother. And the Sultan was very sad. And the Sultan ordered horses to be saddled, and he went and called the governor, and he went and called the judges, and all the rich men in the town were called. And he said, "Come now, go with me quickly, we have had a loss by death; let us go and bury him."

And the Sultan set out and went night and day, till he came to the well where the gazelle was thrown.

And the Sultan himself went in in his own person into the well, and the vizir went in in his own person, and the judges went in in their own persons into the well. And the chief rich men went into the well, and followed the Sultan, When the Sultan saw the gazelle in the