Page:Swahili tales.djvu/67

Rh thirdly, this turban; fourthly, this mkaja; fifthly, this ubeleko; sixthly, this feet-washing; seventhly, this door-opening, and these are what were given to me to put into your hands, and the gift in the hand he says he will come with it himself, and he says he is ready there, he waits for you to come and call him." Says he, "I have no engagement, my time is to-day, so to-morrow he will have his wife."

And he took her clothes and went with them inside to his wife. And he said to her, "My wife, call the child to show her her clothes, and to show her her dowry, that she may do what she will do."

And she called the child, "Come, mother, these are your clothes that are come from your sweetheart, and this is your dowry, and these that are left are the customary gifts for me and your father."

And she said, "Well, mother, what is finished with you, can I reverse it? It is what you like that I like, I cannot smear my father's face with filth, that where he passes he may not be able to open his eyes; I love to gladden my father, that where he passes he may open his eyes, and he may laugh as is the custom, as the people of the world laugh, that he may speak as the custom, as the people of the world speak, that he may walk about as is the custom of the people of the world, as they walk about, and I do not like to bring grief to my father; I wish as other people live with their fathers so to live with mine."

And he said, "Good, my child, you have said pleasing words; I thought, my child, you would bow down my face before people, and you have lifted up my face before people; God grant you to increase, my child, and keep a good heart like the answer you have given me, for they are words that go forward, and I your father am delighted."

Well, they stayed in the house while they put their