Page:Swahili tales.djvu/281

Rh fear is of my dying, how long shall I remain? I cannot help dying." And he said, "I am going." And she said, "Good-bye."

And he went and entered into the forest and wilderness, and went and caught a giraffe. And he killed it, and his soul was very glad, and he said, "This is in very deed the nunda." And he bound it, and dragged it, till as he came and ended half the way, he sang,

And he took and left it.

And she said, "My son, the trouble you have to bear alone, and you have three brothers here; there is not one who says, 'Let us, too, follow our youngest brother, and go with him into the forest, and look for this nunda,' there is none. They all stay at home about their own affairs, and you alone are harassed, my son." And she said, "The womb you came from was the same that bore them, and you have one father, Sultan Majnún. It is not as though you had two fathers, and you alone are harassed, but you all have this one father." And he said, "Mother, every one has his own spirit, and though we be born from one womb, each one has his own spirit." And she said, "Do not go then, my son; these days that you have gone, let them suffice." And he said, "Mother, this is a matter that cannot be helped, I cannot help going." And his mother wept much, and his father wept much, because they feared that, "Our son will die, and this, the best son we have. But what shall we do? He will not consent to stay."

And he went into the forest and wilderness, till he