Page:Swahili tales.djvu/355

Rh said, "Give it." And she said, "His name is Hasseebu Kareem ed deen." And they said, "It is well."

And he was put to school to read, and when he had finished reading, he was put at a workshop, to learn to sew clothes, and did not learn; and he was put to do silversmith's work, and did not learn; and whatever work he was taught, he did not learn it. And his mother said, "Well, stay at home, my son." And he stayed at home, eating and sleeping.

And he said to her, "What was my father's business?" And she said, "He was a very great physician." And he said, "Where are his medical books?" And she said, "Many days have passed, look inside, if they are there." And he went and looked, and saw them eaten by insects; there remained one parcel, and he took it and read, and saw all those medicines.

At last one day his neighbours came and said to his mother, "Give us this boy, that we may go together to cut wood." And it was the business of those four people to cut wood, and they came and sold it in the town. And they used to load donkeys with it. And his mother said, "Very well, to-morrow I will buy him a donkey, that you may all go together."

In the morning his mother bought him a donkey, and the people came, and they went to their work together. And they went, and got much firewood, and came with it into the town, and divided the money.

And the next day they went again, and the third day, and the fourth day, and the fifth day, and the sixth day. But on the seventh day, when they went, the clouds gathered, and the rain fell, and they went to hide under the rocks.

Hasseebu sat in a place by himself. And he took a stone, and knocked on the ground, and heard it sound