Page:Swahili tales.djvu/73

Rh that day, the eighth of a pillar dollar, and water to drink and tobacco to chew. And he got upon his bed to sleep.

In the morning when it dawned he went away to the dustheap. And casting his eyes upon the great road, he sees a Muhadim with a cage of baazi twigs. And he called him, "Hi! Muhadim, what are you carrying inside that cage?" And he said, "Gazelles! gazelles!" And he said, "Bring them! bring them!"

There were three men standing and they said to him, "You have got a job, you Muhadim." "How so, my masters?" "That poor fellow has nothing at all, not a thing." And he said to them, "Perhaps, master, he has." "He has not, you see him yourself on the dustheap, he does not get up, he scratches like a hen, every day he gets two grains of mtama and chews them. If he had anything, wouldn't he have bought mtama and eaten it? Would he want to buy a gazelle? He can't feed himself, will he be able to feed a gazelle?"

And the Muhadim said to them, "He, masters, I don't know him, I have brought merchandize, whoever calls me, I answer, and if he says come, I go. Shall I know this one is a buyer or this one is not a buyer? Shall I dispute with people? I have brought merchandize, if I am called am I not to go? It's the custom of a carrier of merchandize whoever calls him, he goes, be he little, be he great, be it a woman, be he poor, be he destitute. I don't know these things, I am a carrier of merchandize, whoever calls me, I go."

"Oh, oh! so you don't heed our words which we have told you; we have seen his home, and we know him that he is no buyer." And the second arose and said, "Ho! what words are these? perhaps God has made him a gift, or when God is going to make him a gift will he tell you, 'To-day I have made such a one a gift, come and look at him.