Page:Swahili tales.djvu/421

Rh bring me a masheela. And his slave went at once and returned with a masheela and four people, and they carried him. And he put the woman into it, and told his slave, "Fire a gun, that all the company may know." And he fired a gun, and his companions came, and they said to him, "What is the matter with you, son of the king?" And he said, "I am cold, and I want to go my way into the town." And they carried the game they had got, and went away. And the king's son had got into the masheela, he and that young woman. And his companions knew nothing of it.

And they went to their city, and reached his house. And he said to a man, "Go and tell my mother and father, I have fever to-day, I want gruel quickly; let them send it to me." And his mother and father were troubled, and gruel was cooked for him, and sent to him.

And his father went with his vizirs and went to see him. And at night his mother went with her people to see him.

The next day he went out, and went and told his mother and father, "I have picked up a young woman, I want you to marry me to her, but she has lost one hand?" And they said, "Why?" And he said, "I wish it just as it is." And the Sultan loved his only son much, and he made a wedding and married him.

And the people heard in the town, "The Sultan's son has married a young woman, she has lost one hand."

And they remained until his wife became pregnant, and bore a son, and his parents rejoiced exceedingly.

And the Sultan's son went on a journey, and went to travel about in the towns of his father.

There behind her brother came out; he had nothing to spend, and was going begging. Till one day he heard people conversing, "The Sultan's son has married a woman