Page:Swahili tales.djvu/199

Rh loved my daughter, and am in bitterness about her; yet I do not wish to harm you.'

"And when he said that to me, I saw that so it was. And I arose, and went to my house, and sat thinking and considering; and I felt the house was not the place for me, and I went out to go and look for my wife. And I went without knowing whither I ought to go; and I pressed on the road, and went through a forest.

"And I saw two snakes—a white and a black. And the black one came with its mouth open, chasing the white one. And I arose, and struck the black snake, and killed it. The white one went on, and departed. And it went; and I saw it returning with three white snakes like itself. And they took hold of the black snake, and cut it up into little bits, and threw them away. And they said to me, 'Your courtesy will not be lost.'

"And they asked me, 'Are you not Mohammed the Languid?' And I said, 'I am the languid one.' And they said to me again, 'Your courtesy will not be lost; we know what it is that has banished you from your home. The cause is the Shereef's daughter, and that Marid wished long ago to carry off the woman. And he was no ape, he is a Jin; and as to what he told you about there being a treasure, there was no treasure, they were the bonds that bound him; and he was changed into an ape by the Shereef. And now,' they said to me, 'please God, you shall get your wife.'

"And they went and returned with a man exceedingly and wonderfully large. And they asked him, 'Do you know such a one?' And that such a one was the Marid that had been a ape. And he said, 'I know him; and now he has changed and become as he was at first, and he has got a wife: he has carried off her that he was watching. And now he has gone to the city of Nuhás. He found the world no place for him.'