seven o'clock strikes you shall feel the dates in your mouth, and you eating them. And now if he waits till the evening, he will not feel a date in his mouth, not to say till the evening, for five months he will not get a date in his mouth to eat."
"And what will you do then, master?" And he said, "I am not going to my father. I shall run away." And he said, "What will you run away for, master? You had better go. If you run away, how long will you run away for?" And he said, "I shall run away till the soul of my father is appeased." And he said, "Master, it is not well for a gentleman to run away. You had better go."
And he went to his father's, and he found him not yet awake, and he waited for him till he awoke. "Well! give me the news from the garden, my son." And he said, "I have no further news; the news that I have is one, my news of the dates is they have been eaten by some bird. This is the news I have, I have no further news. Do with me what you will. You are the knife, I am the animal."
And he said, "Get away from before my face, I hate to see you." And he arose and went away. And he said, "Ah! I have not got children, they are a disease. It is a disease when a son proceeds from the bowels, who is of no use to a man in this world, will he be of any use to him afterwards? Now these sons. What sort of sons are they, who cannot even put dust into a man's eyes? If this is getting children, I have done with it."
Well, he waited till another year the date-tree bore, and it bore every year more and more. And he said, "He who is manly, I shall see him in the garden, and I shall see him again with his hand to my mouth feeding me with dates, then I shall know that he is my son." And he said, "He who shall feed me with dates, I will
