Page:Swahili tales.djvu/105

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SULTAN DARAI.
85

it said, "A wife, and clothes, a banana tree, and cultivation, these are a fat gift." And it said, "My master, there where you are at a distance, when you have mounted the horse, as you have put on this suit, no one would know you had been scratching yesterday; though from there in a foreign land where we are going when we return to our country whence we came out, they will not say of you, This is the poor man that scratched in the dust-heap, people will not believe it, you have become so fine, and your face is so clean." And it said, "Whatever the matter, and whatever the thing, even your teeth to-day are so white, no one will mention anything except the moon of the fourteenth, that is the moon which is bright." And he said, "All this is your largess, which you have lavished on me."

So they went their way; and they went and went, till when the gazelle cast its eyes it saw the house of that Sultan. And it said, "Master, you see that house?" He said, "I see it." And it said, "That is the house we are going to, and you there are not a poor man any longer; and do you know your name?" He said, "I know it." "What is your name?" He said, "I am called Hamdani." And it said, "That is not your name, that one." "Eh! father, what is my name?" And it said, "Your name is Sultan Darai." And he said, "Very good."

Immediately they saw soldiers coming running, and other soldiers went running to go and tell the Sultan. And fourteen soldiers came to them; and going on a little they saw the Sultan, and the Vizirs, and the Emirs, and the Judges, and the rich men of the city coming.

And the gazelle said to him, "Get off your horse, master, your father-in-law is coming to meet you, and your father-in-law is that one in the middle, wearing a sky-blue joho). And he said, "Very good." And he got off his horse; and the soldiers were called and took the horse.