Page:Swahili tales.djvu/43

Rh forgotten. Well, it is getting night-time; call the childreu to go to bed; get up and fasten the door." The children went into their own room to sleep, and their father went and slept.

Then in the morning when it was light, he called, "My wife." She said, "Here, master." "I am going away to work; see the child does not go outside; let her play here inside within the enclosure along with her sister." She said, "Very well, master." And he went away to his work.

The woman cooked the food, and called, "Children." "Here, mother." And they both came running. Her husband's child said, "Me, mother." "Ah! am I called your mother? when did I bear you? Your mother is dead yonder, I call her my child whom I bore myself." The girl turned back and thought in herself, and cried very much, till her companion asked her, "Sister, what are you crying for?"

She said, "I am not your sister; your mother told me, 'Your mother yonder is dead.' I am not your sister. If I were your sister should I be given hard dry rice, and rice, too, that is burnt? and you get good rice; and you are given the kitoweo, and I eat scorched rice by itself, unless it be with mchuzi, because I have no mother. There! I am not your sister." The girl went and called, "Mother!" "My child!" "Why has sister gone round there behind, crying; what have you done to her, mother?" "What, I, she is not my child; I bore you, and you only." "What, is she not father's child?" "If she were your father's child, how would I treat her? I would put her in the apple of my eye, and you would know the truth then that she was your sister. Sh! hold your tongue and say nothing, and call her, that you may eat your food." And she said, "Sister, you are called." "Who is calling me?" "Mother is calling you." "You are mocking me, you are, I have