Page:Swahili tales.djvu/465

Rh glide like a snake, that I may mount the roofs and walls, that I may look this way and that."

And he said, "Greet my mother well, tell her what I have told you." And she went and told his mother, and said, "Your son greets you well, he has told me a message to come and tell you." And she said, "What message?" And she told her what she had been told.

And his mother understood it, and went away to a shop and exchanged for grain, and gave it her slave to clean. And she went and bought many files, and brought them. And she took the flour, and made many fine cakes. And. she took the bran and made a large cake, and took the files and, put them into it, and gave to her slave to take to him.

And she went with them, and arrived at the door, and the soldiers robbed her, and chose out the fine cakes, and ate them themselves. And as for the bran one, they told her to take that to her master. And she took it, and he broke it, and took out the files, and laid them away, and ate that cake and drank water, and was comforted.

And the people of the town wished that he should be killed. And he heard himself that it was said, "You shall be killed." And he said to the soldiers, "When shall I be killed?" And they told him, "To-morrow." And he said, "Call me my mother, and the chief man in the town, and all the townspeople, that I may take leave of them."

And they went and called them, and many people came together, and his mother and her slave.

And he asked them, "Are you all assembled?" And they answered, "We are assembled." And he said, "I want a horn, and cymbals, and an upato." And they went and took them. And he said, "I have an entertainment to-day, I want to take leave of you." And they said to