Page:Swahili tales.djvu/417

Rh with grain to go and buy a pumpkin. And she said, "They are finished." And when she knew it was her brother's wife's slave, she told him, "Take this one, and take back your grain." And she went and cooked it, and found it very sweet. The next day she sent some one again. And she said, "There are none at all to-day." And he went and told his mistress, and she was exceedingly vexed.

When her husband came and asked her, "What is the matter with you, my wife?" She told him, "I sent some one to your sister with my grain, to go and ask for pumpkins. She did not send them, and told me, 'There are none;' and other people all buy of her." And he said to his wife, "Let us sleep till to-morrow. I will go and pull up her pumpkin plant."

When the morning dawned, he went to his sister and said to her, "When my wife sent grain, you refused to sell her a pumpkin." And she said, "They are finished; the day before yesterday she sent some one, and I gave to him for nothing." And he said, "Why are you selling to other people?" And she said, "They are finished, there are no more, they are not yet come." And her brother said to her, "I shall go and cut up your pumpkin." And she said, "You dare not, unless indeed you cut my hand off first; then you may cut up the pumpkin." And her brother took hold of her right hand and cut it off, and went and cut up her pumpkin plant, every bit of it.

The woman set on hot water, and put in her arm, and put medicine also, and bound on a cloth.

And he took away from her everything, and put her out of the house.

And his sister wandered about in the forest, and this her brother sold the house, and gathered much property, and remained spending it.